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.

[Darksheare]

Yes, that would be fairly hard.
Wonder where they kept all the herds?

[Eaker]

The thing in the middle is a labratory gas centrifuge

Sitting next to a Univac. Do you have a picture of one sitting next to an 8086 so we can see how much they have advanced over the centuries?

Eaker

[technomage]

The evidence of WMD's is probably all over Iraq. Some of it, or most of it, is not in government facilities. That sicko Hussein has the stuff hidden, buried, built into, homes, parks, hospitals, etc.

I believe our intelligence was correct about Iraq. It just did not know the exact locations. Saddam has this stuff hidden extremely well. We need to get some people there that can think like a devious, demonic lunatic that would go to any and all lengths to hide his WMD programs.

[HassanBenSobar]

By the mid-nineties any VX he had produce in the eighties was just useless sludge. WIthout ongoing programs, his old VX was a non-entity.

OK, so Iraq admitted that it had produced VX etc in the 80s (which is true), had large stockpiles at one time, but had destroyed them later...presumably before the inspectors entered right after the first gulf war. I'm a little unclear on the exact claims they made, so if they said they got rid of all that stuff pre-GWI (which doesn't agree with Khidhir Hamza's statements) that's one thing. Now, if they still had 'old' VX hanging around, why not just produce the 'sludge' and be done with it? It was useless to them anyway. Maybe they did this, and I just never heard about it, but even if I give you the benefit of the doubt on this, there's plenty of other evidence that Saddam was still trying to develop WMDs. (and as far as anthrax goes--the spores last a long, long, time...)

Now, according to various defectors---and you can be skeptical about them if you like--the work to develop WMDs was continuing under the inspectors' noses at least up until they were kicked out in 1998. According to Hamza, the standoff in 1994-timeframe, in which Iraqis refused to let inspectors make off with a bunch of documents they'd found--involved documents that listed all the personnel involved in the nuclear programs. (The Iraqis slipped in and substituted fake documents for these, and ended the standoff.)

Given that 99% of chem/bio weapon production is dual-use, sure, skeptics can go on and on casting doubt on various finds. With nukes the story is a bit different. So why would a centrifuge be hidden away in this manner? Given the extremely mendacious character of Saddam's regime, I tend to see this as a smoking gun. Why else would a scientist bury a centrifuge in his rose garden? Explain that!

[TomB]

UN security council, inspectors.

Why pass Resolution 1441, calling for the destruction of Iraq's WMDs, if they didn't believe they had any?

[savedbygrace]

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.

The bomb is off the rose.

[Sacajaweau]

I wonder what the name of the rose bush is?? Maybe it's a clue but then I think of wierd things sometimes. But then I imagine a communication discussing "rose bushes".

[Bogey78O]

Well considering one only needs to get up to 1945 level of technology can we say there is such a thing as outdated?

What prevents a device that makes nukes in 1991 undesireable in 2003?

[Lady In Blue]

There's something else. I heard on Fox News late this afternoon that they have also found sent "precursors" and something else to the lab(in U.S.?)to be tested.Anybody else hear that? I think the reporter's name is Brett Brier(name?).He reports from the pentagon.

[leftiesareloonie]

It's not a matter of belief. It's a matter of knowledge.

To SUSPECT that they MAY have had them, is not the same as to ASSERT that they DO have them. The point is the UN was willing to take an honest and thorough look. Bush and his minions were not. They had another agenda.

[VRWC_minion]

They had another agenda.

Like saving innocent lives.

[doug from upland]

Memorialized in song HERE.

[Brad’s Gramma]

Bush and his minions were not. They had another agenda.

Please explain something to me. It's rather obvious that you don't like President Bush. I can accept that.

But why does it NOT matter that that country has been freed of a dictator? Why is it such a small deal that children won't be tortured in front of their parents? Why is it SO DURN important that every "i" has been dotted and every "t" crossed for some of you people to see that what America and her allies did was a GOOD THING??????

[b4its2late]

I think we need the Aw Jeez thing over here too....

[VRWC_minion]

Maybe we should return Saddam to power and give him reparations for what loonie thinks was a mistake.

[Brad’s Gramma]

I'm really really really sick of this baseless argument of theirs.

[VRWC_minion]

I'm not. They are taking the exact same path they took when they entered the "quagmire". (Heck, the first time Bush pulled this was when the liberals complained there was no evidence Clinton's admin trashed the WH.) It is so patently obvious that Bush is playing them like a fiddle. This "disclosure" given to CNN of all places is Bush's way of giving them all a giant hint that he knows they will ignore.

Bush always gives his opponents-(whether political or terrorists) plenty of chances. For some reason they almost never see it or they refuse to see it.

Mark this down, the administration is sitting on plenty of evidence and it will be presented in one nice neat package once the investigation is virtually complete. By that time Bush's critics will be so far on out on the limb it will be impossible for them to deny it when the fall.

[VOA]

CNN has ace reporter Mike Betcher at an undisclosed location with a huge exclusive

I'm fairly sure that Mike Boettcher is a home-boy from my hometown in Oklahoma.
I think his dad is a fairly successful (and actually respected) attorney.
Mike did a report about concerns that the oil refinery in the town might
be sold to foreign interests (didn't happen).

[Brad’s Gramma]

It is so patently obvious that Bush is playing them like a fiddle.

OK, I'll be quiet....you're SO right.