You mean to say the UN KNEW IN ADVANCE that madman had enriched uranium? Either way, he did have yellow cake. Seeking, Hxll-- he HAD it.
Yes, BUSH KNEW ABOUT IT! President George H. W. Bush downplayed any threat from the stockpiles, and together with the inspectors, allowed it. Clinton continued the policy.
For example, see this December 17, 1999, press release snippet (http://www.nci.org/pr/pr121799.htm):
[Nuclear Control Institute] has learned that in late 1991 or early 1992, IAEA officials decided to allow Iraq to retain 1.7 metric tons of uranium enriched to 2.6% U-235 (low-enriched uranium, or “LEU”), as well as some 13 tons of natural uranium stocks. The Gulf War cease-fire resolution required that Iraq surrender all of its “nuclear-weapons-usable material” and not “acquire or develop” such material in the future. Iraq’s bomb-grade, highly enriched uranium (HEU), which it had diverted from a research reactor for conversion into a nuclear bomb at the start of Operation Desert Storm, was removed by airlift by February 1994, along with other uranium with enrichments as low as 10%.Considering the fact that I was critical of President H.W. Bush's softness on this at the time, I think it's ridicuous of you to shout at me about it when it's a Bush decision, not mine!
“According to officials involved in these decisions at the time, the IAEA decided to permit Iraq to keep its LEU and natural uranium stocks for possible future use in a ‘peaceful’ nuclear program,” said Steven Dolley, NCI Research Director. “Agency officials also concluded that the cost of removing these materials from Iraq would be prohibitive, even though Iraq was required under U.N. mandate to pay all such expenses.”
The deadline for annual, routine inspection of this material, required under Iraq’s pre-Gulf War safeguards agreement with the IAEA, expired this week. Iraq has refused to issue visas to the IAEA inspectors, thereby blocking the inspection---a violation of its safeguards obligation under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Shortly after the Gulf War, IAEA and Bush Administration officials downplayed the risk of Iraq's LEU and natural uranium stocks, assuming that Iraq would not be technically capable of enriching the uranium to weapons-grade. However, Iraq’s development of high-speed centrifuges had advanced to the point that the deployment of a small, well-concealed centrifuge enrichment facility cannot be ruled out.
See http://www.fas.org/irp/cia/product/iraq-wmd.html, "...excerpts from an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate . . . declassified on July 18, 2003 and presented at a White House background briefing on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.":
Iraq retains approximately two-and-a-half tons of 2.5 percent enriched uranium oxide, which the IAEA permits. This low-enriched material could be used as feed material to produce enough HEU for about two nuclear weapons. The use of enriched feed material also would reduce the initial number of centrifuges that Baghdad would need by about half. Iraq could divert this material -- the IAEA inspects it only once a year -- and enrich it to weapons grade before a subsequent inspection discovered it was missing. The IAEA last inspected this material in late January 2002.
Iraq has about 500 metric tons of yellowcake1 and low enriched uranium at Tuwaitha, which is inspected annually by the IAEA. Iraq also began vigorously trying to procure uranium ore and yellowcake; acquiring either would shorten the time Baghdad needs to produce nuclear weapons.
And now, based on what you say, everyone in the UN knew he was sitting on 500 tons. It sure wasn't known by a lot of democrat senators, it would appear. [emphasis added]
Well, just because you weren't aware of the UN tagging program doesn't mean our Senators were as ignorant (though you did say Dem senators, so perhaps they were... ;-)
The idea was, the materials are there and locked/tagged, and inspectors saw they weren't being tampered with. When I first saw people posting about "700 tons of yellowcake" here...I thought they meant un-tagged, since there was never any question about the tagged stuff except that the inspectors hadn't been allowed in very recently. So finding the tagged stuff in place just strengthens Saddam's case that he hadn't touched it.
The problem is, there's barking up the wrong tree.
The fact is, without inspections, who knew what could have been done!? It's the inspectors who allowed enriched uranium to remain, against the agreement.
What needs to be pointed out to the public is that he had this material, and even though we knew he had it ahead of time and it wasn't touched, that's irrelevant to what could have been going on--and without proper inspections, we had to take action.
It's all about the context, my FRiend. :-)