The Uranium Joe Wilson Didn't Mention

NewsMax ^ | 7/17/05 | Carl Limbacher

[Calpernia]

I think you wrote a blog about this at the Finest.

[Smartass]

:o)

[Calpernia]

Luckily, Iraq didn't have even the small number of centrifuges necessary to get the job done.

Or did they?

The physicist tapped by Saddam to run his centrifuge program says that after the first Gulf War, the program was largely dismantled. But it wasn't destroyed.

In fact, according to what he wrote in his 2004 book, "The Bomb in My Garden," Dr. Mahdi Obeidi told U.S. interrogators: "Saddam kept funding the IAEC [Iraq Atomic Energy Commission] from 1991 ... until the war in 2003."

---

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/860674/posts

Aluminum centrifuges are old-tech, even by Iraqi standards. When United Nations inspectors went in after the Gulf War they discovered that Iraq had been trying to build centrifuges made from a much stronger specialty steel, known as maraging steel, and even carbon fiber, which is lighter than steel and can be even stronger (explaining why many yachts now have carbon fiber masts). Because these materials are so strong, centrifuges made from them can spin faster, making separation of the U-235 isotope many times more efficient.

The weapons inspectors destroyed the centrifuges they found, along with the rest of Iraq's enrichment infrastructure, but apparently Saddam is trying again. And as in the 1980s, he seems prepared to use old technologies if they are available. Back then, using declassified U.S. data, Saddam's scientists were also building calutrons, a method considered by the Manhattan Project but rejected because enrichment by that route took too long.

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

Bump.

[FreedomCalls]

[FreedomCalls]

[Calpernia]

Patience my friend. Lots of good stuff will come out in Saddam's trial. They are getting ready to announce the date.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1444981/posts

With the country rocked by the insecurity, Iraq's chief investigating judge Raed Juhi said late last night a date for the trial of Saddam and his top aides would soon be announced.

He said charges had been brought against them in connection with a 1982 massacre.

The news came at the conclusion of the investigation into the killing of 143 residents of the village of Dujail, northeast of Baghdad, after Saddam survived an assassination bid there.

[FreedomCalls]

Centrifuges that could be used to separate high-grade uranium from natural uranium were found in a warehouse near Tuwaitha.
Photo Credits: Action Team 1991-1998/IAEA

Inspectors examine molten steel ingots. Equipment was melted in furnaces and turned into ingots to hide it from the inspectors.
Photo Credits: Action Team 1991-1998/IAEA

A drum of radioactive material discovered in Iraq in 1991.
Photo Credits: Action Team 1991-1998/IAEA

Bottles of specialized oil used in centrifuge for separating high-grade uranium from natural uranium.
Photo Credits: Action Team 1991-1998/IAEA

Containers for radioactive material discovered in a warehouse in Iraq in 1991.
Photo Credits: Action Team 1991-1998/IAEA

[Just mythoughts]

Thank you for the correction. Interesting place for a typo.

[Dashing Dasher]

Joe Wilson searching everywhere for yellow cake uranium!

[FreedomCalls]

Action Team Inspectors examine an Electro Magnetic Isotope Separation (EMIS) machine. EMIS's are used to separate highly enriched uranium from natural uranium.
Photo Credits: Action Team 1991-1998/IAEA

The remains of facilities used for Iraq's clandestine nuclear weapons programme.
Photo Credits: Action Team 1991-1998/IAEA

[wagglebee]

You and your pictures :)

[agincourt1415]

Joe never left the Hotel Bar in Niger.

He drafted his report in the Bar after about 5 Kaptain Morgans.

[Dashing Dasher]

Did you say "Yellow Cake"?

[wagglebee]

Since I can't think of any plausible reason to post a picture of a scantily clad woman, you get a pass. -:)

[petercooper]

bttt

[Just mythoughts]

I think you are correct.

[JWinNC]

Bookmark... Oh, this is getting so rich, we should all by stock in Pepto-Bismal, the Libs are going to be drinking it by the gallons.

[F-117A]

Unfortunately there was a typo in the original document.

See post#54.

[JWinNC]

'03, '04, doesn't make much difference... by his own admission he was a Kerry advisor back to mid '03, unless of course he is lieing again. The more we know about this the worse it looks for these folks. Rove wins again.