Saddam Has Nukes, Ex-Weapons Inspector Says

Newsmax.com ^ | Friday Dec. 6, 2002 | Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com

[Myrddin]

What is the likelihood of a nation doing its first nuclear test in combat? Of it working as expected by the designers?

When you have a limited amount of nuclear material, it is perfectly reasonable to run the "tests" in a combat environment. What do you have to lose? If it fails to go boom, it would have done so in the test environment too. If it does go boom, mission accomplished.

I suspect Saddam's definition of a "combat environment" will be somewhere in Israel or a major U.S. city. He won't do it personally. He will let his Al Qaida buddies attend to that task while he watches the homefront.

[steveegg]

I usually do have patience (different perspectives and all), but when I see something in "breaking" that I recognize from a bunch of hours back, I tend to lose patience.

[Argus]

Good spot to post this again:

UN Method for dealing with a rattlesnake in your backyard:

1. Get the toddlers inside.

2. Find the rattlesnake.

3. Wearing thick, long gloves, grab it just behind the head.

4. Using special gizmo you've brought along for the purpose, milk the venom out of its fangs into a glass jar.

5. Turn the snake loose.

6. Let the toddlers back into the yard.

7. Repeat weekly for as long as the snake lives.

US Method for dealing with a rattlesnake in your backyard:

1. Find the rattlesnake.

2. Chop its head off.

[DoughtyOne]

I know what you mean. Scott made some good comments about the time the last round of inspections ended. Meanwhile he was actually hired by the Iraqi government to conduct PR or some other effort on behalf of them. I know this isn't the exact description of his duties, but it seems his attituge turned 180 degrees after his employment. Soiled goods...

[El Gato]

What is the likelihood of a nation doing its first nuclear test in combat? Of it working as expected by the designers?

The so called "Little Boy" atomic bomb the US dropped on Japan had never been tested. It worked fine. The "Fat Man" type was tested, once, the second bomb of that type was dropped on Japan. Both the test and the "live" drop, worked fine. So I"d say the odds were pretty good. Saddam's designers have access to computers that would have made the Manhatten Project designers shake their heads in disblief. So do you for that matter, but likely what Saddam has is step up from your average PC, maybe a couple of them. Would they get the best possible yield in the smallest possible package? Probably not, but they wouldn't be likely to get a fizzle either.

[isthisnickcool]

I got this great poster from a pal a few minutes ago and could not wait to share it with my Freeper pals.

I read the bottom. Barf!

[steveegg]

What is the likelihood of a nation doing its first nuclear test in combat?

Historically, 50%. The Trinity test in July 1945 was of the implosion bomb (what was to become Fat Man), while the first gun bomb (Little Boy) exploded was over Hiroshima. The scientists knew that the gun bomb would work as advertised, while they didn't know whether the implosion bomb would.

Morever, even if the first Iraqi bomb doesn't reach critical mass, what'll be left is a dirty radiological bomb, which would serve the Islamists/Saddam's purposes just as well. If that first explosion doesn't happen in enemy territory, Saddam knows that UN or no UN, Iraq becomes a self-lighted glass parking lot.

[El Gato]

I should have added that Saddamn's designers probably had the advantage of access to Pakistani and other designers, possibly even some hungry Russian ones. Maybe Chinese too. Also they may have had access to all sorts of information from the US program, via the Chinese or others.

The hard part is not making the bomb, the hard part is getting or producing the weapons grade uranium or the plutonium.

[mrustow]

What we've got here is a need to communicate.

[steveegg]

The weapons-grade nuclear material is THE hard part, but given modern designs, getting the explosives to implode just so is a close second with or without computers.

[DB]

I agree, after the fact is too late.

[Hermann the Cherusker]

What is the likelihood of a nation doing its first nuclear test in combat? Of it working as expected by the designers?

What if one (or more) of the Pakistani tests back several years ago was an Iraqi nuke? You don't suppose that the Iraqi nuke people and the Paki nuke people might have talked? Nahhh! Way to outlandish!

[Ajnin]

Last September, Federal law enforcement agencies were given an intelligence report from the Pentagon stating they recieved a telephone call from a person named Markeson. This individual claimed that Iraq had nuclear weapons and was trying to mate thos weapons with long range missiles. I read the report at one of our musters before hitting the border. Although it was an official report it was quite vague and lacked any specific information. It didn't seem like a very reliable report but who knows?

[Ajnin]

thos=those

[Steve Eisenberg]

This individual claimed that Iraq had nuclear weapons and was trying to mate thos weapons with long range missiles. I read the report at one of our musters before hitting the border. Although it was an official report it was quite vague and lacked any specific information. It didn't seem like a very reliable report but who knows?

Read the book "Saddam's Bombmaker," the autobiography of Iraqi defector Khidhir Hamza. The story is that as of several years ago, they had one or two small nukes which might or might not work. Fortunately, they're quite heavy, and Iraq probably lacks the ability to transport them very far, and they deteriorate about as quickly as the Iraqis can produce them.

The danger is real, but it's hard to be sure. This must be making US planning for the Iraq invasion even more difficult than otherwise -- all military principle says to concentrate attacking forces, but you don't want 20,000 Americans all sitting within a single square kilometer right over one of these maybe-it-works-maybe-it-doesn't monsters.

Most likely, as in the book "Is Paris Burning?" the dictator's generals will refuse to follow the dictator's scorched earth orders in full measure. However, the danger is real. I hope no one is assuming that we can use time better than Saddam can.

[SevenDaysInMay]

We are beyond silly if we don't expect one or more nukes already here right here in River City as well as those in Iraq. Does anyone really think that the Baath leadership wouldn't use chem or bio vectors in the USA and UK as we're kicking the spit out of their corpses? I would not be shocked if Saddam sets of one of his own nukes in Iraq to blame us, just to get the billion not-yet jihidis excited.

The UN will provide their own volunteer human shield inspectors just to block the USA.

Pan-Islam is at war to the death with the USA. They know that they can severely damage us, but are gambling that we will get PC and not destroy them. We will see at least Armageddon Lite, or our children's children will.

[WarrenC]

So you apparently believe that September 11th never happened and that no terrorist attacks will ever be launched against us in the future? And that Sadam Hussein is just a peace loving guy? People like you amaze me.

[jws3sticks]

Your posting has me baffled but that's your right. Go figure!

[Mr. Mojo]

Scott Ritter and his little pals in A.N.S.W.E.R....should be hunted down and deported to Iraq if one goes off here.

I'd deport the terrorist ass-kisser [Ritter] even if a nuke doesn't go off here. But if we can prove that he lied under oath about what he knew of Iraq's capabilities, he should be executed for treason.

[Squantos]

Freep mail enroute.....