Disconfirmations Disconfirmed: Saddam Had Nuke Program

American Thinker ^ | July 06, 2008 | Randall Hoven

[neverdem]

The media have been telling us for years that Saddam had no WMD, so "Bush's War": was based on a "lie." And those who believed Saddam did have WMD or WMD programs were delusional or worse.

But today, on July 6, 2008, the Associated Press that:

• Saddam Hussein had a nuclear program
• At the Tuwaitha nuclear complex just south of Baghdad
• Which included 550 metric tons (over 1.2 million pounds) of "yellowcake", or concentrated uranium
• And multiple devices that could be used in a nuclear weapon. 

The AP does not say alleged nuclear program.  It does not add "according to military experts."  It simply says "Saddam Hussein's nuclear program."

That's pretty big news, isn't it?

For about five years now, those of us who thought Saddam Hussein probably had at least WMD programs, if not WMD themselves, have been called not only wrong, but illogical and insane.

One example was an article by Sharon Begley in the Wall Street Journal  titled People Believe a 'Fact' That Fits Their Views Even if It's Clearly False  .  (Her article series is called, without irony, the "Science Journal".)  Ms. Begley reported that "six months after the invasion, one-third of Americans believed WMDs had been found, even though every such tentative claim was discomfirmed [sic]."  She cited psychologists to explain this strange behavior.  They used terms like "world views" and "mental models."

Jim Lobe at CommonDreams.org (Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community)  reported that "Three out of four self-described supporters of President George W. Bush still believe that pre-war Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or active programs to produce them."  He went on to quote the director of the polling company as saying

"To support the president and to accept that he took the U.S. to war based on mistaken assumptions likely creates substantial cognitive dissonance and leads Bush supporters to suppress awareness of unsettling information about pre-war Iraq."

These findings on people's beliefs were based on a survey that asked people if they believed Saddam had WMD or WMD programs .  Apparently, Sharon Begley, Jim Lobe and a whole lot of other people not only believed Saddam had no WMD programs, but that anyone who did believe such a thing was clearly illogical or insane.  In fact, the only interesting question to them was what is wrong with our minds.

World views.  Mental models.  Cognitive dissonance.  Suppressed awareness.

Fast forward to today.  Now we hear from the Associated Press that "The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program -- a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium -- reached a Canadian port."  That last "remnant" was 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium.  That is over 1.2 million pounds of yellowcake!  Also, the military had previously withdrawn "four devices for controlled radiation exposure ... that could potentially be used in a weapon."  All this was located at "the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles south of Baghdad."

The AP even reminds us that

"Accusations that Saddam had tried to purchase more yellowcake from the African nation of Niger -- and an article by a former U.S. ambassador refuting the claims -- led to a wide-ranging probe into Washington leaks that reached high into the Bush administration."

By the way, is it illogical or insane to think that Saddam could not possibly obtain yellowcake, and did not even try to, because one former ambassador went to one country in Africa and said he couldn't find it there?  What about after they found over a million pounds of it just south of Baghdad?  Is it now considered reality-based to think Saddam "sought" yellowcake, just as President Bush said in his 2003 State of the Union address ?

Should psychologists study Sharon Begley's brain now that the disconfirmations have been "discomfirmed"?  Should the CIA send Joe Wilson to Canada to monitor the destruction of the yellowcake he could not find in Africa?

[edpc]

See if you can find a copy of The Bomb in My Garden: The Secrets of Saddam's Nuclear Mastermind by Mahdi Obeidi. It should have some of the details you need.

[luvie]

Saddam Had Nuke Program

NO!!!!!
Say it isn't SO!!!

[lepton]

That whole Wilson thing was fascinating to me...in a train-wreck sort of way. The President and the administration said that Iraq was seeking yellowcake. Wilson was (for quite a while) limiting his statement to vociferously stating that the Iraqis did not buy Yellowcake from Niger. It’s amazing how many people go with the emotional content of a statement without paying attention to the words. The President and his Administration never said Iraq succeeded in buying yellowcake, and for quite a while, I never noted Wilson saying that Iraq had not sought yellowcake, thus both statements could be true. It was innuendo and idiocy.

[lepton]

There were 22 other reasons listed to invade Iraq. It was not all about WMD.

After we discovered the major stockpiles of undeclared WMDs in the mid-90s, there was no excuse for not resuming the war. Everything after that was just borrowed time.

[mewzilla]

BTTT.

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

All of the yellowcake was a remnant of the pre-1991 Iraq program, which was identified and regularly inspected by the IAEA.

Oh, Mohamed El-Baradei and the IAEA had it all under control. That's good. Because I've been wondering all these years why the hell they ever permitted Saddam to maintain possession of thousands of tons (remnants) of raw nuclear materials after 1991.

I'm sure Saddam never dreamed of breaking those UN seals when he threw the inspectors out of the country.

[Go Gordon]

We knew, Freepers, just as the world’s intelligence communities knew.

Didn't Saddam declare he had the yellowcake in his declaration to the UN?

[smithone]

No one's really asserted otherwise.

I don't understand. He can make this claim, disappear without replying to any comments, and we're supposed to disprove his comment?

I think you have it backwards.

[Sergio]

Mark.

[Missouri gal]

‘Scuse me for askin,’ but do we trust leftist Ontario with this much yellowcake? I mean, Canada is pretty much a socialist/Muslim totalitarian state.

[lepton]

I don't understand. He can make this claim, disappear without replying to any comments, and we're supposed to disprove his comment?

I think you have it backwards.

I don't mean on the thread. I mean generally. The yellowcake in question was in barrels that were marked, sealed, and tagged by the U.N. Some of the barrles were emptied, and used to collect rainwater by the locals after the war, and there could be some sort of debate over how long they'd been empty of how much. Also, he could theoretically have had entirely different yellowcake elsewhere, but this was part of the inventoried assemblage. No one has argued that he was adding to the supplies in this U.N. monitored facility.

[smithone]

Sorry, I missunderstood you. I don’t like hit and run posters though.

[metesky]

But then there was the president back in the mid-nineties... What the heck was his name?

;O)

[cookcounty]

"There were 22 other reasons listed to invade Iraq. It was not all about WMD."

Operation Iraqi Freedom was secretly about Freedom.

[Chgogal]

Why didn’t the UN remove it from Iraq like the US has?

[SunkenCiv]

...sure, but no one died when Saddam lied... y’know, because we smoked his ass before he had the chance to launch. Thanks neverdem and Perdogg.

Iran has resumed A-bomb project, says West
Telegraph.co.uk | Last Updated: 11:35PM BST 06/07/2008 | By Con Coughlin
Posted on 07/06/2008 4:46:17 PM PDT by Perdogg
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2041610/posts

[WhistlingPastTheGraveyard]

He doesn’t have to back up the claim. He’s admitting to a damaging fact: thousands of tons of enriched uranium were left in Saddam Hussein’s possession with nothing but a bungling, corrupt and incompetent inspection team standing in the way of his using them.

Saddam was not disarmed. Plain and simple.

[Chgogal]

See post #95.

[cookcounty]

"All of the yellowcake was a remnant of the pre-1991 Iraq program, which was identified and regularly inspected by the IAEA."

A 1.2 million pound remnant! Imagine what the whole amount must have been!!

[Strategerist]

I don’t remember the justification for the war being forcibly removing the known pre-1991 material under IAEA seal and inspection.