U.S. Nuke Find Claim in Iraq Critiqued

AP via Yahoo News ^ | 4/10/03 | William J. Kole

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[Anotherpundit]

Sounds to me like someone's trying to cover their ass and explain away what our troops found. Radiation? what radiation?

[Let's Roll]

"ElBaradei said the inspectors should return as soon as possible, subject to Security Council guidance, to resume their search for banned arms"

...return as soon as possible ... subject to Security Council cover up, er guidance..."

Not No, but HELL NO!

[ContentiousObjector]

this isn't a smoking gun for the same reason the artillery shells weren't.

The UN had already seized and sealed it years ago

[Fitzcarraldo]

I'm really F'n tired of the UN.

[Sofa King]

"But an expert familiar with U.N. nuclear inspections told The Associated Press that it was implausible to believe that U.S. forces had uncovered anything new at the site. Instead, the official said, the Marines apparently broke U.N. seals designed to ensure the materials aren't diverted for weapons use — or end up in the wrong hands."

Ah... more 'experts'. I tell ya folks, that word should raise a red flag every time you read it unless there's an actual qualification for their expertise (aka, a CURRENT general, not a retired one).

[RaiderRose]

"Instead, the official said, the Marines apparently broke U.N. seals designed to ensure the materials aren't diverted for weapons use — or end up in the wrong hands."

Okay, here's my problem with this. If these "seals" were so great, why is it that our Marines had no problem supposedly breaking them? Sorry, but sealing it up isn't a comfort to me. Sounds like a load of crap to me.

[TheHeterodoxConservative]

Let him return, please!

And since he's so convinced there's nothing radioactive there, encourage him to inspect wherever he likes, without a protective suit.

[telebob]

I'm no nuclear scientist but it sure seems to me that this stuff would be a great source for dirty bombs. I guess the UN had Saddam's word that he would always use this nuke 'waste' for only peaceful purposes....

[The Hon. Galahad Threepwood]

I think the purpose of seals was merely to ensure that the things had not been opened, not to physically prevent the opening.

I don't trust the UN either, but I do trust Jed Babbin:

The news that the Marines discovered Saddam's nuclear weapons--including weapons grade plutonium--under the old nuke site at al-Tuwaitha seems too good to be true. Like most things that do, it probably is. Dr. Khidir Hamza was the head of Saddam's nuclear weapons program for nearly two decades. He told me today that he's very skeptical. If he is, so am I.

Dr. Hamza worked at al-Tuwaitha for twenty-four years. The site, very close to the Tigris River, has a very high water table, making underground construction very hard, but not impossible. When you dig you get a well not a tunnel. When Dr. Hamza left there in 1994 no massive tunnel complex existed. It is possible that Saddam built a massive underground site for nuclear weapons development since then, but probably not at that site. Saddam is (was?) too clever to have undertaken such a project in a spot that is so closely watched. A big dig like the one required for such a big project would, as Dr. Hamza said, almost certainly have been detected by satellites or even by the U.N. inspectors who were very active there.

Dr. Hamza--the only guy I know who has had eyeball-to-eyeball and nose-to-nose contact with Saddam--doesn't believe the Marines found anything more than what may have been left behind by the U.N. inspectors. Even Chief U.N. Inspector Hans Clouseau, and his sidekick al-Baradei, couldn't miss radiation as intense as is being reported. We should wait for more to believe we have captured Saddam's nuke program.

[crobnson]

I'm getting the impression that the UN & Saddam had frequent orgies.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The UN Inspectors didn't do their job, they are a joke!

OFFICIAL BUMP(TOPIC)LIST

[ez]

They said the U.S. troops may have broken U.N. seals meant to keep control of the radioactive material.

WHY DOES THE UN HAVE RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL IN IRAQ?

[P-Marlowe]

the Marines apparently broke U.N. seals designed to ensure the materials aren't diverted for weapons use — or end up in the wrong hands.

If this material can be diverted for weapons use, then what the heck is it doing in Iraq? If this material is capable of being processsed into weapons grade nuclear material then this IS the smoking gun!

[Minty]

I am starting to believe we will not find a thing. By the time we got there the guy had every track covered.

[ez]

this isn't a smoking gun for the same reason the artillery shells weren't.

The UN had already seized and sealed it years ago

So are you telling us that while the UN was telling us that Iraq had no fissionable material, they actually did, but the UN "sealed it up?"

[crobnson]

We should be interrogating the UN to find out what else they know. The UN has had a really bad history and this is starting to show that there is more there. How do we get rid of them? Or at least refill their seats with people who have true morals?

[rwfromkansas]

I am wondering myself.

Let's see.........there have now been probably near 10 false alarms.