Posted on 07/21/2004 9:38:10 AM PDT by Zhangliqun
BAGHDAD, July 21 (UPI) -- Iraqi security reportedly discovered three missiles carrying nuclear heads concealed in a concrete trench northwest of Baghdad, official sources said Wednesday.
The official daily al-Sabah quoted the sources as saying the missiles were discovered in trenches near the city of Tikrit, the hometown of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
"The three missiles were discovered by chance when the Iraqi security forces captured former Baath party official Khoder al-Douri who revealed during interrogation the location of the missiles saying they carried nuclear heads," the sources said.
They pointed out that the missiles were actually discovered in the trenches lying under six meters of concrete and designed in a way to unable sophisticated sensors from discovering nuclear radiation.
The sources said al-Douri, who is related to former Vice Chairman of the Iraq Revolution Council and Saddam's right-hand man Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, was captured after Iraqi police intercepted an e-mail message in which he set a meeting with another former Baath official.
The report could not be authenticated by the interior ministry or the national security department, but the paper noted Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiar Zibari made a surprise request recently to Mohammed el-Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to resume inspections for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Copyright 2004 by United Press International. All rights reserved.
This cannot possibly be true, because if it was, then Bush didn't lie, and everybody knows that Bush lied.
QED.
(/sarc)
UPI I think it might be could be Reuters
Drudge pick up the story just now
We're waiting like you to see if this pans out.
Same article posted on Drudge now also!
The story originally from Iraqi newspaper. Reuters claim that there is absolutely no truth in it.
Several long threads on FR regarding this news item, but all we can do is to wait and see.
Those who gave the information to UPI are obviously confused in their understanding. They do not know the nature of radiation and the use of Geiger counters. Odds are, they also do not know the difference between a "nuclear" weapon and a "dirty bomb."
If this story is true, it is nearly certain because the Iraq nuclear program was in its earliest stages, that these were NOT "nuclear" warheads. More likely, if the story is true of finding the missiles, these were "dirty" warheads -- conventional explosives with a jacket of nuclear material to contaminate the area of their explosions.
Congressman Billybob
Latest column, "John Kerry & John Edwards: You've GOT to be Kidding"
If you haven't already joined the anti-CFR effort, please click here.
We must get htis out before the main stream kills it and spins it. I will forward it to Hannity.
OPs4 God BLess America!
But that would be quite a find too!
We must get this out before the main stream kills it and spins it. I will forward it to Hannity.
OPs4 God BLess America!
I did a search and found this:
Iraq dismisses nuclear find report
Who knows, maybe the official they spoke to is a sympathizer. I heard that the UN and other countries are now dispursing inspection teams. I wouldn't trust the UN as far as I could throw the US taxpayer subsidized palace they infest in NYC. Why would they even bother unless there was something they didn't know or didn't want anyone else to know?
I am reserving judgement on this for now. We all want to see the rats get flushed and sometimes we're willing to rush out and grasp these things as facts before they are confirm by reliable sources (notably not the UN...)
Well, it was denied by someone whose denial was denied later. It would surprise me if it were true, but then it would surprise a lot of people. We'll see.
Maybe.
I should say I'm skeptical about the story too. I gave it a 10% cheance when I first heard it; I've upped that to 20%. At the same time, it's not impossible they could be real nukes. Granted, they couldn't have enriched the uranium or made the plutonium themselves. but there's enough fissile material on the international black market for Iraq to have put together two or three bombs. And the rest of the technology is trivial; anything you could do for $1bn using vacuum tubes in 1945 you can now do for $1000 using silicon.
Still, the 'dirty bomb' hypothesis is a good one. It would explain why the nukes weren't used. Dirty bombs are terror weapons; unless you get one onto Manhattan Island, for example, they don't have much impact. What's the point of contaminating the desert with low-level radioactivity? On the other hand, if Saddam had nukes, why is Kuwait City not a glowing lump of glass?
(1)Dispatch Ron Silver to Baghdad with a camera crew.
(2)Film the recovery of the weapons.
(3)A C-17 will deliver the missile with WMD to Logan INtl Airport.
(4)Freepers will have organized a parade/demonstration.
(5)Documentary Centigrade 911, (subtitle "When lies ignite")
I don't think it's true. No matter how advanced Iraq's nuke program was, nobody believed they had missiles fitted with warheads--we don't even think that Iran is that far, and they are farther than Iraq ever was.
Thanks. Yep, wait & see....
Isn't it plausible that Saddam could have purchased nukes on the black market? He had literally semi-truckloads of cash, so much easier than developing your own program.
I give it a zero percent that these are working nukes. That does not mean they aren't intended to be nukes, but I doubt they were finished, complete products.
If I had to bet on a long shot, I'd say they are some black market gizmo, possibly fake.
Most likely they are the product of bad reporting.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.