Posted on 11/12/2005 7:48:27 AM PST by Carl/NewsMax
Though President Bush didn't mention it in his speech yesterday rebutting critics of his administration's use of intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, experts say that Saddam Hussein had stockpiled enough partially enriched uranium to produce at least one full-fledged nuclear bomb.
Commenting on Saddam's enriched uranium stash after the U.S. Energy Department removed it to Oak Ridge, Tenn., in June 2004, top physicist Ivan Oelrich told the Associated Press:
"[Saddam's] 1.95 tons of low-enriched uranium could be used to produce enough highly enriched uranium to make a single nuclear bomb."
Oelrich, a leading member of the Federation of American Scientists, is not alone in that assessment.
Bryan Wilkes, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, told the New York Times that Saddam's partially enriched uranium "could have been further enriched to make it useful in a weapon."
After the U.S. removed Saddam's nuke fuel stockpile, interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi confirmed that it posed a great danger to the region's security interests.
"These materials, which are potential weapons of mass murder, are not welcome in our country and their production is unacceptable," Allawi told Agence France Press.
Even Saddam's 500-ton un-enriched uranium stockpile, which he stored at the same nuclear weapons research facility where inspectors found his partially enriched stash, posed a potential threat.
In a March 2003 op-ed piece for London's Evening Standard, Norman Dombey, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Sussex, calculated that Saddam's yellowcake could have yielded a staggering nuclear arsenal.
"You have a warehouse containing 500 tons of natural uranium," Dombey wrote. "You need 25 kilograms of U235 to build one weapon. How many nuclear weapons can you build?
"The answer is 142 [nuclear bombs]," he said.
Which invasion? GW I or GW II?
My God people are dense. Nothing mentioned in the NewsCrapx article remotely establishes an ongoing uranium enrichment program. It's a simple rehash of ancient info...the following article is from 2002:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/iraq/tuwaitha.htm
"Following the 1991 Gulf War, the International Atomic Energy Agency removed all known Iraqi stocks of highly enriched uranium and plutonium, in accordance with the provisions of UN Security Council Resolution 687. As of 2002 the only positively confirmed nuclear material left in Iraq is 1.8 tons of low-enriched uranium and several tons of natural and depleted uranium. The material is in a locked storage site at the Tuwaitha nuclear research facility near Baghdad. Under the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, this stock of material is checked once a year by an IAEA team. The most recent check was in January 2002, and none of the material had been tampered with at that time."
We need to investigate the investigation and then investigate those who did the investigating. Maybe then the sheeple will say, "There's too much investigatin' going on."
Both. Provide a quote where someone, obviously besides newsmax and 'former CIA experts', stated that Saddam had a functional nuclear weapon.
Why would he want nuclear weapons before he invaded Iran and Kuwait, but not want them after his invasions failed ? We all agree that at one point in his past he actively pursued nuclear weapons. Why is it so hard for some people to admit that the 'Butcher of Baghdad', the man who thought he was the next 'Babylonian King', the man who used chemical weapons on the Iranians and Kurds, would not always pursue the ultimate weapon ? The weapon that would guarantee his crowning as the new great Babylonian King ?
Not really sure where you're going with this, whether it's just some strawman you're setting up to knock down?
You can speculate on Saddam's desires if you wish. I would tend to agree with your speculation although, in the abscence of any actual evidence documenting his intentions, that's really all it remains.
However as neither I, nor anyone else in this thread as far as I can see, is advancing the argument that this had occured (or considers it one way or the other actually relevant to the discussion) it's something of a moot point.
I second that thought. One won't be good enough to convince the libs, unless it's San Francisco.
THERE IS AN ELEPHANT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROOM
Mr. Wilson was going to Niger on personal business during the Clinton Administration, and his wife 'asked' her boss to let Joe do some investigation into the 'yellowcake to Saddam' issue. He returned with word that there was no such deal.
He was not required to document his investigation. He was not required to take an oath to protect the information and the agency he was 'doing a favor'. He did not have to fill out or sign any legal documents whatsoever.
Mr. Wilson was going to Niger on personal business during the Bush Administration and his wife 'asked' her boss to let Joe do some investigation into the 'yellowcake to Saddam' issue. He returned with word that there was no such deal.
He was not required to document his investigation. He was not required to take an oath to protect the information and the agency he was 'doing a favor'. He did not have to fill out or sign any legal documents whatsoever.
His expenses were covered by your taxes both times, and his company did not have to incur that expense.
His company.
In Niger.
What does his company do?
They are a broker.
What have they, do they broker?
THIS IS THE WHITE ELEPHANT.
The 500 tons was still there.
Or was it?
There was 500 tons, but not the same 500 tons that the UN teams found.
There was a shell game.
Just like in police evidence lockers.
Take 100 tons out to process, put 100 tons raw ore back in.
When inspectors weigh it, still 500 tons.
My earlier post explains where he was getting the ore. Or at least one of the sources. That source is what the Dems are trying to hide by this attack on Bush, Cheney, and Libby.
Guess what the company the Joe Wilson owns, and which is why he went to Niger both times, does as a business.
The rest of his uranium was in Libia being enriched to bomb grade.
Blair made the son of the good colonel an offer he couldn't refuse and he prevailed on his old man to come clean and join the world.
It is all now in Oak Ridge where it has been analyzed and determined to bee from the same or very similar origin.
My belief and I'm sticking to it.
Actually it neither supports nor disproves an ongoing program.
500 Tons. There before, there after. 1.7 refined. Same deal.
But. Take 100 tons out to refine, and replace it with 100 tons raw. Take the 1.7 out and refine it further. Place it in launch weapons. Put 1.7 refined back in it's place.
500 tons then, 500 tons now. 1.7 refined then, 1.7 refined now. (and weapons in Syria in nuclear resistant underground factories with the fissionable material in them.)
ping
I believe his broker firm works directly with two French owned companies in Niger that are uranium mining companies. A few days back I thought we had an article that gave the two names of the two companies but did not devulge the name of Wilson's company.
According to The last Failed Presidential Dim Candidate, that would only constitute an annoyance, not worthy of military force.
The site was sealed, not sure how all that would have been accomplished. Or indeed, why they would bother (why take out 100 tons and replace it with a 100 tons of exactly the same thing? You already apparantly had what you needed in your scenario, so you wouldn't need to 'steal' it from the sealed site). But, again, this is pretty much beside the point, which was to debunk the argument that these materials were proof that we had 'discovered' WMD in Iraq which the media/our various governments were neglecting to tell us.
While he had enough partially enriched uranium for one nuke, he had enough unprocessed uranium for 143 nukes.
> We NOW knew he [Hitler] didn't have one [A-bomb].
Until recently, we also knew the Japanese didn't have one.
That is now in dispute:
Japan's Atomic Bomb
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1464754/posts
GW is discovering why Roosevelt did little significant
about the Axis threat until Pearl Harbor.
Did we even have an accurate weight measurement of the yellow cake put in lock down in 1991? If not, they would not even need to pay attention to how much they kept on hand. Like you suggested, this makes for an easy shell game; something Saddam took pride in playing.
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