Regards, Ivan
Posted on 09/25/2004 1:15:57 AM PDT by MadIvan
AN IRAQI scientist-turned-author says the most significant pieces of his country’s dormant nuclear programme were buried under a lotus tree in his backyard, untouched for more than a decade before the US-led invasion in 2003.
But their existence, Dr Mahdi Obeidi writes in a new book, is evidence that the international community should remain vigilant as other countries try to replicate Iraq’s successes before the 1991 Gulf war to develop components necessary for a nuclear weapon.
In The Bomb in my Garden, Dr Obeidi details Saddam’s quest for a nuclear bomb: "Although Saddam never had nuclear weapons at his disposal, the story of how close Iraq came to developing them should serve as a red flag to the international community."
In the book, published tomorrow, Dr Obeidi details his research through nearly a quarter of a century under Saddam, including the designs for key components and prototypes for nuclear production, buried in a plastic drum next to his rose garden. Probably just two of Saddam’s most trusted deputies knew the whereabouts of the research, he says.
While only the former president knows fully why he did not restart his nuclear programme, Dr Obeidi believes Saddam may have realised the scope of the massive undertaking. UN inspectors had dismantled the programme, removed stockpiles of enriched uranium and exposed Iraq’s international network of suppliers - and Saddam was doing well from the UN’s oil-for-food programme, while increasing his control over a population reliant on him for basics.
To get caught importing the components needed to produce a nuclear weapon, the scientist says, would have ended the programme. Yet Saddam kept his Iraq Atomic Energy Commission running, apparently without weapons programmes, as late as 2003.
"All we had left was the knowledge in our heads and the documents buried in my garden," Dr Obeidi writes.
In a forthcoming report, US weapons inspectors with the Iraq Survey Group are expected to conclude that Saddam had intentions of reinvigorating his weapons programmes, but no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
Dr Obeidi, 60, was the creator of Iraq’s centrifuge, a key component in one method of enriching bomb-grade uranium. He considers it the most dangerous piece of nuclear technology because related advances make it possible to conceal uranium enrichment in one warehouse.
Dr Obeidi and his colleagues were able to travel the world in the 1980s, collecting centrifuge research and components for their work from scholars and private companies in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, France, England and elsewhere. Then, Saddam had yet to become an enemy to the West.
By the late 1980s, Iraq was making breakthroughs. However, international help dried up as Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. The UN arrived after Saddam’s 1991 defeat, intent on taking apart his weapons programmes.
To hide signs of uranium enrichment then, Dr Obeidi describes a massive demolition and reconstruction programme he led, to remove everything from topsoil to coffee makers at his former centrifuge lab.
After the 2003 invasion, Dr Obeidi attempted to take the nuclear secrets buried in his garden to US authorities. He describes disorganisation as the CIA and military intelligence wound up fighting over him. Only after extensive negotiations involving a former UN weapons inspector, David Albright, who was in Washington, did Dr Obeidi turn over all of his information.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
bttt
Uh uh.
We need to completely dismantle our intellegence apparatus and start over from scratch. An Intel Czar is just another layer of bureaucracy to be "managed" by career bureaucrats.
While we are at it, our State Department need some remodeling too.
"In a forthcoming report, US weapons inspectors with the Iraq Survey Group are expected to conclude that Saddam had intentions of reinvigorating his weapons programmes, but no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction."
True. And that is more frightening than J. Effin sKerry.
Why not?
Our laughable "intel community" has not predicted ONE SINGLE EVENT of importance since before WWII, or provided any accurate intel on matters of real importance. No notification of Pearl Harbor, the N. Korean invasion of S. Korea, the plots of Islamofacists (WTC 1993 & 2001, the Cole, or the African embassies), the collapse of the Soviet Union, the stockpiles of WMD's in Iraq, etc, etc; and I could go on for days!
Our Intellegence bureaucracy is bloated, terrifically expensive, dangerously ineffective, and hampered by partisan politics and patronage. Why continue an obviously failed practice?
Hard to argue with that, maybe I'm being too conservative on this issue. I think we would all like to believe that our "intelligence" services actually provided intelligence. Maybe I am just a victim of wishful thinking.
I'd like to believe it too, but the facts lead me to the conclusion that our intellegence agencies are less effective at their mandate that midnight basketball leagues are at theirs.
THAT is just plain sad.
bump and thanks!
ping
ping
I agree with you that there are severe intelligence problems and that adding a layer just slows down the "river of mud" even further.
In their defense, I will say that when they're successful we never hear about it.
Just a reminder..
Nothing "lay dormant", the program was moved to Libya..
The research, Head Iraqi Scientist(s) and money went to Libya, and, with additional funding from Egypt, research and development continued..
This was all revealed when Moamar Khadafi decided to end all WMD research and turn everything over to the U.S. led coalition..
The Liberal Media continues to make this one of the Least Reported Stories since Operation Iraqi Freedom ended..
"And your colours still don't run" bump.
Death-to-the-terrorists greetings from Texas.
It sure is easy to sit outside and scoff.
When YOU are the one on the hotseat with all the information it isn't quite so simple. Then you have a jillion little bits of information, all pointing in different directions.
You are also listening to hundreds of intelligent people, analysts and agency/service officers and heads, all with different opinions.
It is rare when you have a source of information inside the enemy's camp. Even then you have to wonder how reliable he is.
http://www.nbcnco.com/main/gis.htm
The sources said that his December 19, 2003, announcement about abandoning Libyan WMD programs — about which he had consistently lied for more than a decade — were designed to protect the “core secret”, the longstanding Libyan cooperation programs with Iraq, Iran, the DPRK and even Egypt, on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and strategic missile development. By openly admitting the WMD programs and then abandoning them, the sources said, he hoped to avert deeper investigation.
http://128.121.186.47/ISSA/reports/Libya/Jul2903.htm
5. Libyan and other sources have told this Service that, in fact, yellowcake was being procured (or at least had been the subject of agreements) from Niger for Iraq during the embargo period, but by the Libyan Government. The yellowcake was being used for weapons development programs by Iraq and Libya (and possibly Egypt, one of the partners in the strategic weapons program) being conducted by joint teams in the Libyan facilities at Sabha and Kufra.
http://128.121.186.47/ISSA/reports/Libya/Oct0102.htm
At the same time, Libyan sources have told GIS that they believed that it was possible that the bulk of the “heavy engineering” of Iraq’s strategic weapons programs had been undertaken for some years in Libya, rather than in Iraq itself. This included weaponizing weapons of mass destruction (WMD) payloads (biological, chemical and nuclear) for deployment on ballistic missiles, including the NoDong 1 systems acquired from North Korea (DPRK) in 2000.
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.