Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Iraq Survey Chief Duelfer: Saddam Was Developing Nukes
Newsmax

Posted on 08/05/2004 9:49:10 AM PDT by bubman

Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 11:37 a.m. EDT Iraq Survey Chief Duelfer: Saddam Was Developing Nukes

Saddam Hussein had an active nuclear weapons development program at the time of the U.S. invasion in March 2003, chief U.S. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer has told Congress.

In comments that received virtually no press coverage in the United States, Duelfer testified that Iraq was "preserving and expanding its knowledge to design and develop nuclear weapons." One Iraqi laboratory "was intentionally focused on research applicable for nuclear weapons development," the top weapons inspector said.

Duelfer's stunning assessment, delivered in March of this year, was first reported last week by renowned historian William Shawcross, in a column for Britain's Guardian newspaper. The former U.N. weapons inspector, who replaced David Kay as head of the CIA's Iraq Survey Group last year, said that Saddam was financing his nuclear program by misappropriating funds from the U.N.'s Oil-for-Food Program.

According to Duelfer, Saddam was able to use Oil-for-Food to boost his military procurement budget to $500 million annually &$0150; a 100-fold increase from 1996 to 2003.

Most of the recent nuclear research took place at Iraq's notorious al Tuwaitha weapons facility, where Saddam had stockpiled over 500 tons of yellow cake uranium ore since before the first Gulf War.

Iraq was also in talks with North Korea on the possibility of importing a 1,300 km missile system, the ISG chief revealed. Foreign missile experts were working in Iraq in defiance of U.N. sanctions, and had helped Iraq redesign the al-Samoud missile.

Saddam's 500-plus-ton uranium stockpile was being monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the same agency that had responsibility for monitoring North Korea's nuclear program throughout the 1990s. In October 2002 Pyongyang stunned IAEA inspectors with the announcement that it was ready to produce nuclear weapons.

In June of this year, the U.S. Energy Department removed 1.8 tons of low-enriched uranium from al Tuwaitha.

Ivan Oelrich, a physicist at the Federation of American Scientists, told the Associated Press at the time that the low-enriched uranium stockpile could have produced enough highly enriched uranium to make a single nuclear bomb.

In March 2003, Vice President Dick Cheney said there was evidence that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program, but the claim was widely dismissed by congressional investigators as well as U.S. reporters.


TOPICS: Front Page News; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: charlesduelfer; duelfer; iraq; iraqnukes; isg; nukes; oilforfood; saddam; un; wmd
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-33 next last

1 posted on 08/05/2004 9:49:11 AM PDT by bubman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: bubman

Does this mean that the Dem talking heads are lining up to move the goal-posts, again?


2 posted on 08/05/2004 9:53:01 AM PDT by Turbo Pig (...to close with and destroy the enemy...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bubman
Worry not. The Iraq Survey Group report will be released in September.



 
 
Click HERE for

The Kerry/Edwards Files
-at-
The CouNTeRPuNcH Collection

3 posted on 08/05/2004 9:53:13 AM PDT by counterpunch (The CouNTeRPuNcH Collection - www.counterpunch.us)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bubman
Inside look at a typical IEAE meeting
to push for more Islamic and terrorist nuclear weapons.


4 posted on 08/05/2004 9:54:03 AM PDT by Diogenesis (Re: Protection from up on high, Keyser Sose has nothing on Sandy Berger, the DNC Burglar)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bubman

i wont believe it till saddam drops a nuke right in downtown, and even then it better have his name on it


5 posted on 08/05/2004 9:54:34 AM PDT by barryallen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bubman
In comments that received virtually no press coverage in the United States, Duelfer testified that Iraq was "preserving and expanding its knowledge to design and develop nuclear weapons." One Iraqi laboratory "was intentionally focused on research applicable for nuclear weapons development," the top weapons inspector said.

What is CNN......?

:-)

6 posted on 08/05/2004 9:54:42 AM PDT by maestro
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bubman

Link:

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/8/5/114239.shtml


7 posted on 08/05/2004 9:55:42 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer (The democRATS are near the tipping point.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Turbo Pig

When the dims go quite on a talking point subject you know they are erecting the goal posts elsewhere. Heard anything about WMDs lately?


8 posted on 08/05/2004 9:55:57 AM PDT by snooker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: bubman

"There is still no evidence that any US city was ever devastated by an Iraqi nuclear weapon. Therefore, Bush lied to us." [/sarcasm]


9 posted on 08/05/2004 9:56:07 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (The Fourth Estate is a Fifth Column)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: counterpunch

That's Funny! It's also true.


10 posted on 08/05/2004 10:00:31 AM PDT by elbucko (A Feral Republican)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: barryallen
i wont believe it till saddam drops a nuke right in downtown

So do you think we should wait around until that happens?

11 posted on 08/05/2004 10:00:51 AM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: bubman
Nuclear !!!! Clearly a dyslexic wrote this and meant Unclear.
12 posted on 08/05/2004 10:01:44 AM PDT by jigsaw (May God Bless Our Troops.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bubman
There were no WMD! Haliburton, Haliburton, Haliburton! Blood for oil! (pant, voice going up an octave) Bush died, people lied! Haliburton! Dis-enfranchised voters! Skull and bones!
Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
13 posted on 08/05/2004 10:04:01 AM PDT by VRW Conspirator (It's my turn to decide what the "common good" should be. My turn. My turn. My turn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: snooker
sKerry mentioned it this morning. He also was highly critical of President Bush sitting in the classroom on the morning of 9/11 (trying to appeal to the 9/11 Widows). Hey! Maybe he's looking for a new bride!
14 posted on 08/05/2004 10:04:46 AM PDT by Use It Or Lose It (John Kerry has a plan. So does Al Qaeda. We KNOW what theirs is. What's Kerry's?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: bubman

Let's not forget that we DID get our hands on many of Saddam's WMD - the scientists and skilled technicians. It is one thing to find the fish (bombs, shells, poisons, etc.) but quite another to find the fishermen (scientists, etc.) to borrow an old parable.


15 posted on 08/05/2004 10:05:29 AM PDT by NonValueAdded ("I actually was going to throw like a man before I threw like a girl." JFK 7/25/2004)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Izzy Dunne
After we are nuked (by N Korea?), I think we should go to the UN and ask "May we please attack them now?"

But I'm worried that France will say that (so far as they know) all of N Korea's nuclear weapons have been used. No evidence, you see, that they have any more. Therefore, there is no longer an "imminent threat" and so, "No, you cannot respond. We do, however, have a proposal for a Food-for-Kimchi effort which should give billions of dollars to N Korea. Care to help?"

16 posted on 08/05/2004 10:05:32 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (The Fourth Estate is a Fifth Column)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: bubman

Where is the picture of Daschle being soooo disappointed.


17 posted on 08/05/2004 10:07:11 AM PDT by OldFriend (IF IT'S KERRY.....HELL IS ON THE WAY)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Use It Or Lose It

So he mentioned Saddam was trying to get nukes?

If he did, I will bet that caused seizures in the audience.


18 posted on 08/05/2004 10:08:51 AM PDT by snooker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: ClearCase_guy
Sounds like you're angling for an ambassador post in the Kerry administration...

;->

19 posted on 08/05/2004 10:11:36 AM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: VRW Conspirator
There were no WMD! Haliburton, Haliburton, Haliburton! Blood for oil! (pant, voice going up an octave) Bush died, people lied! Haliburton! Dis-enfranchised voters! Skull and bones!

I don't understand why you completely avoid Bush's draft-dodging National Guard non-service...

...not to mention Enron...

20 posted on 08/05/2004 10:14:10 AM PDT by Izzy Dunne (Hello, I'm a TAGLINE virus. Please help me spread by copying me into YOUR tag line.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-33 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson