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Yellowcake Found in Rotterdam Harbor May Have Originated in Iraq
AP ^ | Jan 15 2004 | Toby Sterling

Posted on 01/15/2004 2:29:13 PM PST by Dog

Yellowcake Found in Rotterdam Harbor May Have Originated in Iraq By Toby Sterling Associated Press Writer Published: Jan 15, 2004

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) - A recycling company found uranium oxide - a radioactive material also known as yellowcake - in a shipment of scrap steel it believes originally came from Iraq, the company said Thursday. Paul de Bruin, spokesman for Rotterdam-based Jewometaal, said that the shipment was passed on last month from a Jordan metal dealer who was unaware it contained any forbidden materials.

"I've dealt with this man for 15 years and he says he's sure it came from Iraq," De Bruin said. He said Jewometaal had been asked not to reveal the name of the Jordanian exporter while the find was being investigated.

Nuclear experts say that although not highly radioactive, uranium oxide can be processed into enriched uranium usable in a nuclear weapon - but highly advanced technology is needed.

The Dutch Environment Ministry confirmed Thursday that Jewometaal reported the unusual find on Dec. 16. After a preliminary investigation by a company that specializes in removing radioactive waste, the Dutch government decided to call in the International Atomic Energy Agency to investigate further.

A spokesman for the IAEA confirmed the agency had visited Rotterdam on Wednesday but had no further comment.

Environment ministry spokesman Wim van der Weegen said scrap metal companies in the Rotterdam port, which is Europe's largest, report around 200 findings of radioactive material per year, often from old hospital equipment or normal industrial uses.

But the finding of an estimated two pounds of uranium oxide is odd, Van der Weegen said.

Experts said that around 2 pounds of yellowcake, the amount found, would not be useful for either a bomb or fuel.

Dr. Alan Ketering, a researcher at the nuclear research plant at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said yellowcake contains less than 1 percent of U-235 used in nuclear weapons. He said it would need to be refined many times with sophisticated technology before it was dangerous - and the amount found in Rotterdam would not be nearly enough.

"Anybody can dig it up and purify it to make the yellow stuff," he said. "It's the separation of U-235 that people are concerned about."

However, he said there was no obvious non-nuclear industrial use for yellowcake and it would be strange to find it in random scrap metal.

The material was found in a small steel industrial container apparently used to connect pipes or electrical wires, Environment Ministry spokesman Van der Weegen said.

He said it wasn't yet known where the yellowcake originated.

"It could be from anywhere in the world," Van der Weegen said. After testing, the material was shipped to a nuclear waste plant in the Netherlands.

Jordan does not have any known nuclear power plants or weapons and is a signatory to the nuclear test ban treaty.

President Bush came under heavy criticism last year when he asserted in his State of the Union address that Iraq was shopping in Africa for uranium yellowcake - intelligence that turned out to be based on forged documents.

The original suspicions apparently came from a British dossier and Britain's Foreign Office continued to maintain Iraq was trying to buy uranium in Niger, although no evidence was offered.

Last year, the United States agreed to pay $3.4 million to install radioactivity detectors in Rotterdam to scan a fraction of the 6 million containers that pass through it annually for hidden radioactive material.

However, scrap metal companies are already outfitted with detectors, and Jewometaal found the radioactive material with its own equipment.

AP-ES-01-15-04 1719EST


TOPICS: Breaking News
KEYWORDS: iraq; iraqiwmds; netherlands; nukeprogram; nukes; rotterdam; thenetherlands; yellowcake
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To: FreedomPoster
Uh, oh!

Blister agents. (If true, We're getting closer....)
61 posted on 01/15/2004 7:29:31 PM PST by ZOTnot ((How could the devil have been FOLLOWING her for 3 years? She IS the devil!))
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To: ordinaryguy
good post
thanks for the info.
62 posted on 01/15/2004 7:37:03 PM PST by FBD (...Please press 2 for English...for Espanol, please stay on the line...)
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To: Dog; All
MSNBC - Cyanide & Mustard Agents Found in Euphrates River MSNBC | 4/04/03
63 posted on 01/15/2004 7:45:55 PM PST by FBD (...Please press 2 for English...for Espanol, please stay on the line...)
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To: Dog
MARY HELP!
64 posted on 01/15/2004 7:48:41 PM PST by finnman69 (cum puella incedit minore medio corpore sub quo manifestus globus, inflammare animos)
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To: Dog
"uranium oxide can be processed into enriched uranium usable in a nuclear weapon - but highly advanced technology is needed. " and ....""Anybody can dig it up and purify it to make the yellow stuff," he said. "It's the separation of U-235 that people are concerned about."

Like you can't use "jellocake" for a dirty bomb and like everyone is walking around with the crap! Yeah. sure!.

65 posted on 01/15/2004 8:00:47 PM PST by Henchman (I Hench, therefore I am!)
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To: Dog
Saddam statement from Gitmo:

"I ordered a yellow cake, and this is what they give me. I said, 'you cannot even eat this with green tea and felafel, what is this?' They said 'we do not know, great leader'. I said 'go out and get me a yellow cake, you fools. And go bury this stuff too'. Then I had the thieves put in a wood chipper to teach them a lesson."

66 posted on 01/15/2004 8:24:54 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham ("...the right of THE PEOPLE to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.")
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To: TheBattman
Mortar shells? What mortar shells? OH, the ones that tested positive for blister agents....the ones that were filled with liquid? Oh, the Danes decided that they were mistaken and that they were actually harmless....

Actually, since there were only 36 of them, Kofi Anan, the EU, the DNC, the Dimo Presidential candidates, and the US media decided that they were not worth talking about.

67 posted on 01/15/2004 8:29:54 PM PST by Mad_Tom_Rackham ("...the right of THE PEOPLE to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.")
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To: CyberAnt
During their conversation, Clinton was overheard telling Blair that if Blair didn't drop his alliance with Bush, Blair was going to lose his job. Hmmmm? How could Clinton threaten that?

Was he threatening or expressing an opinion?

and what did Clinton know to allow him to threaten that?

Knowing poll results would probably have allowed him to threaten predict that. Many pundits did.

I'm saying Mr. Wilson had no way of knowing that because he never really looked.

What should he have done on his eight day visit that he didn't do? What did the CIA expect him to do on that visit that he didn't do?

I believe the Clintons suggested Mr. Wilson make the trip to Niger.

That is certainly not the idea Novak conveyed in his 14 July 2003 article.

"The CIA's decision to send retired diplomat Joseph C. Wilson to Africa in February 2002 to investigate possible Iraqi purchases of uranium was made routinely at a low level without Director George Tenet's knowledge."

and

"Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him."

There is only one person who had the motive and opportunity to reveal that info.

That seems, to me, like a rather huge leap.

As to motive... Anyone who didn't like Ambassador Wilson or his yellowcake report had a motive to reveal the info.

As to opportunity... According to Novak's 1 October 2003 follow-up article, "it was not much of a secret." He writes that, "It was well known around Washington that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA." If it was well-known that she worked for the CIA, then lots of people had the opportunity to reveal the info.

If we take Novak at his word, then, "It was an offhand revelation from this [senior administration] official, who is no partisan gunslinger."

suddenly Novak is writing this article which says that someone from the admin (not the WH) told him that Wilson's wife is an operative for the CIA.

There is only one person who had the motive and opportunity to reveal that info.

I believe it was Hillary or someone of her choosing; ...The motive was still to embarrass the President and PM Blair and discredit the intel.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you here... It sounds like you are claiming that Hillary (or someone of her choosing) 'outed' Wilson's wife to embarass Bush and Blair and to discredit the intelligence. Either I'm misreading your statements, or else I am just failing to grasp how releasing the info on Wilson's wife accomplished any of those goals.

I know this probably requires tinfoil, but that's okay. I just don't trust Hillary at all.

I don't trust Hillary either, but this requires more tinfoil than I have on my roll.

68 posted on 01/15/2004 8:45:58 PM PST by ordinaryguy
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To: ordinaryguy
The outing of the wife was done to cover the operation and to place blame on Bush for the outing .. because Wilson's report was REJECTED by the admin.

In other words .. Bush didn't believe Wilson's report. Wilson got mad. It may seem like a leap from Wilson's mad to the outing of his wife .. but it could have been as simple as Wilson's whining about the admin not accepting his report. Then the idea was hatched that the best way to get back at Bush was to BLAME THE ADMIN FOR OUTING THE WIFE .. which of course the admin didn't do. Remember .. the goal is to discredit Bush's credibility.
69 posted on 01/15/2004 9:36:09 PM PST by CyberAnt ("America is the GREATEST NATION on the face of the earth")
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To: kaktuskid; Dog
Funny - they don't look Jewish - whatever that means!
;-)
70 posted on 01/15/2004 9:49:51 PM PST by Tunehead54 (Support Our Troops!)
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To: ordinaryguy
And Iraq wanted 570 tons of uranium because they like using barrels of it as giant checkers pieces in harmless outdoor games...
71 posted on 01/15/2004 9:50:38 PM PST by JasonC
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To: Dog

72 posted on 01/15/2004 9:55:43 PM PST by Consort
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To: knighthawk
Things are getting interesting on the Maas, it seems. Is there any more information in the Dutch press you can pass on to us?
73 posted on 01/15/2004 10:54:07 PM PST by absalom01
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To: Dog
I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Osama followers were at the receiving end of radioactive material in The Netherlands. The country is swarming with Arabs and south Pacific muslims, some of whom are not at all interested in assimilating or productively contributing to their new society.

They're only recently strating to reign in their immigration practices, but it seems too little too late.
Demographically, with a declining birth rate across Western Europe, can we expect a muslim, Arabic-speaking Netherlands before the end of the century?
74 posted on 01/16/2004 6:16:30 AM PST by Gefreiter
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To: CyberAnt
"I think we will know who leaked Mrs. Wilson's supposed ID."

This whole leak issue is a diversion from the fact that Joe Wilson politicized his "findings" regarding the yellowcake. The real question is who is Joe Wilson, who sent him on his little farcical mission, and why would he compromise our national security for political reasons.

When Novak started asking these questions, the press/liberals went ballistic over the "leak" -- and this diversion worked like a charm. We're still talking about this non-issue.
75 posted on 01/16/2004 6:24:59 AM PST by Tricorn
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To: absalom01
I am checking Nieuws.nl and De Telegraaf. Nothing on this one. Also nothing yet on forums. But I already suspected that, such news is almost never carried over here.
76 posted on 01/16/2004 6:35:03 AM PST by knighthawk (Live today, there is no time to lose, because when tomorrow comes it's all just yesterday's blues)
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To: Mad_Tom_Rackham
The ISG has concluded that the results of the second tests on the mortar cache came back negative. A similar cache of mortar rounds were found back in October and also set the meters off. These turned out to have been corroded phosphorus rounds which set off the meters. US mil spokesman have already stated that it is better to go with the initial meter readings and err on caution. The same was for the inital testing of a suspected chemical warhead found at an airbase in Iraq. This registered low on the meter reading, but further analysis revealed that the warhead was not chemical.
77 posted on 01/16/2004 6:49:00 AM PST by Tommyjo
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To: ordinaryguy
FYI:

Iraqi Nuke Hawk Went to Niger (in 1999)

Iraq's trade mission to Niger

78 posted on 01/16/2004 9:12:23 AM PST by ravingnutter
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To: Dog
Crosslink and bump.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1059336/posts
79 posted on 01/16/2004 9:51:49 AM PST by XHogPilot
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To: Dog
I love cake! Yellow, white, chocolate- they all work for me.
80 posted on 01/16/2004 11:28:48 AM PST by Rockitz (After all these years, it's still rocket science.)
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