MKM
Posted on 02/19/2002 5:43:00 AM PST by ex-Texan
Saddam's Bombmaker: Iraq Working on 'Hiroshima Size' Nuke
Iraqi madman Saddam Hussein will likely have a "Hiroshima size" nuclear bomb within the next 24 months, the physicist who headed up Iraq's nuclear weapons research program said Monday.
Citing U.S. intelligence estimates, Dr. Khidir Hamza told nationally syndicated radio taker Sean Hannity, "I don't think he has [nuclear weapons] right now but it may not take long for him to have it - a year or two probably."
"U.S. intelligence estimates at least a year. Germany estimates by 2005, three nuclear weapons," the top Iraqi nuke scientist said.
Dr. Hamza, who defected to the U.S. in 1994, warned about Hussein's nuclear weapons program in his autobiography, "Saddam's Bombmaker," three years ago. More recently he has been working closely with U.S. intelligence agencies.
He declined to describe the precise nature of his cooperation with those agencies, telling Hannity, "I cannot talk about that. You know that."
Hamza did reveal that the 1991 Gulf War interrupted Iraq's A-bomb program in its final stage, just as he and the rest of Saddam's nuke team were in the process of acquiring materials for the bomb's nuclear core.
HAMZA: We [scientists] dragged our feet. We really had enough material to make the bomb then. We delivered it now back to the French but we claimed that we could not extract enough uranium to put in a nuclear core. ...
HANNITY: So you're saying you did have enough - you could have built nuclear weapons but you dragged your feet?
HAMZA: We could have, yes. Actually, everybody [dragged their feet], including the chemists who were in the process of extracting the uranium from the French bureau. Nobody wanted to give Saddam a bomb because we know he would use it recklessly and finish Iraq with it. (End of Excerpt)
German intelligence now believes Hussein once again has all the bombmaking materials he needs except for the enriched uranium necessary for the nuclear core.
"According to the Germans he, more or less, has 30 to 35 percent of the technology needed to enrich uranium for bomb grade," said Hamza, adding, "so he will have enough uranium, and he already has a stockpile of uranium to use."
The top Iraqi nuke scientist said that, based on what he witnessed, Hussein is working on "Hiroshima size" weapons of "12 to 20 kilotons."
But he cautioned:
"There was some enhancement to the bomb that could raise it to 40 kilotons. So you are looking at [a]realistic nuclear weapons stockpile equivalent to that of, say, at least India and Pakistan - and if it continues, probably larger."
Sadaam is a SUICIDAL MANIAC and the rest of the world (Arab/Islamic brothers, our EU allies like the French, Chinese munitions/missles/radar/etc.-expertise suppliers, Russian-buddies, etc., etc., etc.) faults US for trying to stop him. Amazing..............
Hopefully we will drae them a picture, back it up with intelligence, and they will wake up.
And why exactly would you make that statement?
MKM
Yeah and then have the rest of the Arabs find out that it really was Saddam and sit back and watch them take him out without having to lift one American finger. For a change that would be nice too.
operation poetic justice?
They've gotten help from the French, Russians, British, and Germans as well. Many of our "allies". I just wonder how much of their attitude would change if he decided to detonate that in Paris, Berlin, or Moscow versus a US targert?
Of course the French would probably immediately surrender. 8)
This concerns you because....?
"And since we all know he's crazy enough to use them, the threat would be taken seriously."
Nukes are to nations what guns are to men. True enough.
See the other thread about the report of his training of suicide pilots. Why deliver it on a warhead, which the military would be looking for, when you can just load it up in a luggage bay of a commercial airliner, and have some crazy drive it where you want. It's not like he cares about his own people or anything like that.
Your concern is touching, but the usual procedure to help the suicidal is crisis counseling and, in serious cases, hospitalization.
Hopefully funds for these will be included in the next Humanitarian Aid Package.
Better get Hillary on THIS in a hurry.........Isn't MENTAL HEALTH one of those Fundamental Rights guaranteed by the UN?
I think you're wrong. "A" nuclear strike, or even 3, can kill a lot of folks within a few miles of the blasts, but it's not enough to seriously affect an opposing army. It's certainly not "cover" in the usual sense, and I have to think an advancing army wouldn't be able to exploit the nuked area a breakthrough.
If Saddam ever uses a nuke, he's complete toast, and knows it. Not that it'd stop him -- he's a tried and true idiot.
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