Nuke component unearthed in Baghdad back yard

CNN ^ | 25 June 2003 | From David Ensor

[July 4th]

WASHINGTON (CNN) --The CIA has in its hands the critical parts of a key piece of Iraqi nuclear technology -- parts needed to develop a bomb program -- that were dug up in a back yard in Baghdad, CNN has learned.

[Right Wing Professor]

Well, maybe we were a little rough on him, but when I saw that lab. centrifuge picture I just lost it.

[gov_bean_ counter]

Common sense would dictate that if you were in Iraq and had information relevant to the search you would not want to stay there and you would want your family out and you would want assurances of non-prosecution and some hard cash. In that order.

Agreed, however, this hasn't been enough to get others to talk, unless there is intel out there we don't know about yet (ya think).

[alnick]

Andrea Mitchell...But she did say that (ROFLMAO) Saddam Hussein HAD violated the UN Resolution by not turning this stuff over to Hans Blix".

Gee Andrea, ya think?

[VRWC_minion]

So Bush wasn't lying, but it's not comforting if he's using old or incorrect information to stregthen the argument for war.

Bush didn't need the SOTU address to make a case for war. He did need it to let Saddam and other countries know he was dead serious. Bush had already made his case for war back when Congress voted to give him that authority-- twice.

I wish you folks would stop reinventing history.

[TomB]

Well, maybe we were a little rough on him, but when I saw that lab. centrifuge picture I just lost it.

You weren't hard enough. I can't believe people try to get away with posting that crap around here. They have to know someone will call them on it. There are too many people around here who know their stuff.

[alnick]

It is proof that prior to the FIRST gulf war Iraq had a weapons program

It is proof that Saddam hid this stuff with the specific intent of reinstating the nuke program when the coast was clear.

[pickemuphere]

Did you stop to think that perhaps Hussein didn't THINK it would be long term?

Did you bother to read the article? It reads:

The parts were unearthed by Iraqi scientist Mahdi Obeidi who had hidden them in his back yard under a rose bush 12 years ago under orders from Qusay Hussein and Saddam Hussein's then son-in-law, Hussein Kamel.

[VRWC_minion]

unless there is intel out there we don't know about yet (ya think

To be honest even though I am virtually certain Bush is holding back I was beginning to doubt. This disclosure that CNN was invited to the CIA to interview a scientist spilling his guts is definitely a sign from Bush to his critics.

[Cael]

Bush didn't need the SOTU address to make a case for war. He did need it to let Saddam and other countries know he was dead serious. Bush had already made his case for war back when Congress voted to give him that authority-- twice. I wish you folks would stop reinventing history. Whoa whoa whoa. So what you are saying is that the SOTU address was meant only for the ears of Saddam and the international community? It sounds like you are the one who is reinventing history. I'm not going to pretend I can recite SOTU addresses by memory, but I'm sure that in most of them, presidents mention initiatives that are already in motion, so they can let the people know what is going on and that is, according to the president, positive.

[RightWhale]

Isotopes? Like tritium and deuterium?

Right, but you need to consider the problems of collecting isotopes. If they form a liquid or a solid it's not so bad, but if you get a gas it will be hard to handle. If you need to collect some iron-56 you could plate the stream onto a substrate. If you get deuterium, you will also get the gas drifting around and mixing with other gaseous isotopes. It's the kind of problem a chemist might enjoy.

[arete]

Are you going to get your Iraqi nuclear scientist to help you with that?

I possess a fairly common late model particle accelerator. No need to be a nuke scientist to run this baby.

Richard W.

[jwalsh07]

UN RES 687

---

12. Decides that Iraq shall unconditionally agree not to acquire or
develop nuclear weapons or nuclear-weapons-usable material or any subsystems or
components or any research, development, support or manufacturing facilities
related to the above; to submit to the Secretary-General and the
Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency within fifteen days
of the adoption of the present resolution a declaration of the locations,
amounts, and types of all items specified above; to place all of its
nuclear-weapons-usable materials under the exclusive control, for custody and
removal, of the International Atomic Energy Agency, with the assistance and
cooperation of the Special Commission as provided for in the plan of the
Secretary-General discussed in paragraph 9 (b) above; to accept, in accordance
with the arrangements provided for in paragraph 13 below, urgent on-site
inspection and the destruction, removal or rendering harmless as appropriate of
all items specified above; and to accept the plan discussed in paragraph 13
below for the future ongoing monitoring and verification of its compliance with
these undertakings;

13. Requests the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy
Agency, through the Secretary-General, with the assistance and cooperation of
the Special Commission as provided for in the plan of the Secretary-General in
paragraph 9 (b) above, to carry out immediate on-site inspection of Iraq's
nuclear capabilities based on Iraq's declarations and the designation of any
additional locations by the Special Commission; to develop a plan for
submission to the Security Council within forty-five days calling for the
destruction, removal, or rendering harmless as appropriate of all items listed
in paragraph 12 above; to carry out the plan within forty-five days following
approval by the Security Council; and to develop a plan, taking into account
the rights and obligations of Iraq under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons of 1 July 1968, for the future ongoing monitoring and
verification of Iraq's compliance with paragraph 12 above, including an
inventory of all nuclear material in Iraq subject to the Agency's verification
and inspections to confirm that Agency safeguards cover all relevant nuclear
activities in Iraq, to be submitted to the Security Council for approval within
one hundred and twenty days of the passage of the present resolution;

[Normal4me]

>>>Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade. This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens -- leaving the bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children. This is a regime that agreed to international inspections -- then kicked out the inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world.<<<

2002 State of the Union

[Darksheare]

Egads...
And if they DID have tritium or deuterium, they could jump straight to thermo-nukes.
(I kinda got a strange feeling that there is a nuke or so sitting in the sand there somewhere... but it's impractical to drag a 'nuke detector' allover the sand.)

I was kinda hoping I was wrong on that one RW...
*chuckle*

[RightWhale]

why did Saddam not hide it himself in a much safer place rather than relying on scientists

Even Saddam has to rely on people if he expects to get anything done.

[RAT Patrol]

So, you'd use a chem suite, gas mask, and bio-weapon antidote to clean your house with clorox?

[HassanBenSobar]

Hmm, the centrifuge--banned by the UN--was buried post gulf war 1. Why hide it? Why not turn just it over? Duh. Apply the same skepticism, if not more, to Saddam that you do to Bush.

Secondly, Saddam's regime was a police state that was really, really hard to sneak out of--especially if you were connected to a weapons program. The regime executed people for the most trivial sorts of offenses, and any tiny indication that some scientist thought of defecting would mean torture, if not death, to himself and his family. Probably sufficient deterrent to nearly all scientists to shut up. Get it?

Oh, and try using spell check.

[gov_bean_ counter]

So, you'd use a chem suite, gas mask, and bio-weapon antidote to clean your house with clorox?

You would if you were cleaning up after my 19 year-old son.

[demlosers]

You:
The thing in the middle is a labratory gas centrifuge, if anyone seriously called one of those 'the smoking gun' they would be laughed out of the room.

From CNN article from above:
...but it was evidence the Iraqis concealed plans to reconstitute their nuclear program as soon as the world was no longer looking.

The war with Iraq was one of Prevention. Preventing the use of WMDs by Sadaam, most likely through a 3rd party terrorist organization. If we had left Saddam alone, like legions of people in the world wanted. You would be taking a HUGE chance that he would not use those weapon against us, something after 9/11 would be unacceptable. We also have the the testomony of the scientist in the article who says Iraq would have begun their nuclear program again after the coast was clear. The one who hide the centrifuge parts in his garden.

How much evidence do you need that will convince you? I'm sure within a year the evidence will be beyond preponderance.