[reprised from 2003] no URL because it comes from AOL:
So much for Sean Penn, Ed Asner, Jessica Lange, and a host of other celeb-holes. Kelsey Grammer guest-hosted for Letterman (Dave takes Fridays off because of his health) and mentioned in his monologue that he'd recently "come out" -- he's a Republican. The crowd cheered. :') He said it's a risky move, leading to isolation, but that there are others, and they'd recently got together and for fun kidnapped Michael Moore and given him a decent haircut and clothes.U.S. Seizes Iraqi DocumentsU.S. forces broke into an abandoned community hall early Saturday and seized piles of intelligence equipment and top secret documents bearing the seal of the former Iraqi secret service... Some of the documents made reference to Iraq's nuclear program, including manifests for the delivery of communications equipment to the Iraqi nuclear agency. One letter, dated Feb. 7, 1998, from the National Security Council of Iraq was addressed to the Iraqi Nuclear Organization, with a carbon to the Mukhabarat, the secret intelligence service... In Vienna, Austria, diplomats said U.N. atomic experts have tracked down tons of the uranium feared stolen from Iraq's largest nuclear research facility, much of it apparently found on or near the site. The Tuwaitha nuclear facility was thought to contain hundreds of tons of natural uranium and nearly two tons of low-enriched uranium, which could be further processed for arms use.
by Jim Krane, AP
06/21/03 07:33 EDT
Nuke program parts unearthed in Baghdad back yardExperts said the documents and pieces Obeidi gave the United States were the critical information and parts to restart a nuclear weapons program, and would have saved Saddam's regime several years and as much as hundreds of millions of dollars for research. David Albright, who was a U.N. nuclear weapons inspector in Iraq in the 1990s, said inspectors "understood that Iraq probably hid centrifuge documents, may have had components, and so it is very important that those items be found." ...Obeidi said he felt unsafe in Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion and that he was getting pressure from different corners of the country. He also said other Iraqi scientists were watching to see if he was safe after he cooperated with the U.S. government. Now that he and his family are safely out of Iraq, Obeidi said he believes other scientists would come forward with other components of Iraq's weapons program.
Mike Boettcher,
David Ensor,
and producer Maria FleetIraqi uranium found but concerns remainOn Thursday, IAEA inspectors will complete their first mission to Iraq since the war. But they have not been allowed by the US to check the safety and security of these radiation sources, which are used in hospitals and factories or kept in storage. Many of the sources contain potentially lethal amounts of caesium 137, cobalt 60 and other radioactive isotopes. If stolen, they could be combined with a conventional explosive to make a bomb that would contaminate a city centre. They could also pose a serious threat to public health if mislaid or mishandled. Looting has been repeatedly reported at the biggest radiation store, the Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Centre near Baghdad. Doctors in the area say they are seeing dozens of people every day with symptoms of radiation poisoning such as diarrhoea, rashes and nose bleeds... According to the IAEA director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, "most" of the uranium is accounted for, though he is still waiting for the final report from his inspectors. The material has been kept under IAEA seal since 1991 to prevent it from being manufactured into high-enriched uranium for atomic bombs.
by Rob Edwards
16:56 23 June 03Saddam's Bombmaker: France Helped Baghdad Get NukesAccording to Dr. Khidir Hamza, who ran Saddam's nuclear bombmaking program in the early 1990's, Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor was built by the French. When the Israelis determined that the reactor's real purpose was to make nuclear weapons, they destroyed it in a 1981 bombing raid. "From the moment Osirak was hit we knew we had to try another method to get the bomb," Dr. Hamza told the Washington Times in Sept. 2002. The year before Dr. Hamza confirmed that the Osirak reactor was never intended to be anything but a nuclear bombmaking plant.
Friday Jan. 24, 2002
