Iraq Said to Try to Buy Antidote Against Nerve Gas

The New York Times ^ | 11/12/2002 | JUDITH MILLER

[Mitchell]

John Batchelor has gotten scoops before, hasn't he? I never see him credited later though.

[Nogbad]

John Batchelor has gotten scoops before, hasn't he?

He has developed very strong connections with the military.
Even though he is a RINO, he is as hawkish as they come on Iraq.

[Mitchell]

gas centrifuges to make plutonium.

Something about this doesn't ring true. Gas centrifuges are used for enriching uranium. I could be wrong, but I don't think centrifuges are used in plutonium separation. (If I remember right, plutonium is produced in nuclear reactors as a by-product of a nuclear reaction involving uranium, and the plutonium is then separated chemically.)

[Nogbad]

Don't ask me. I gave up on physics 41 years ago.

[Mitchell]

Well, I'm no expert on this either, but I'm fairly sure that that's the standard way of obtaining plutonium. I don't know whether there might be some other way that involves the use of centrifuges.

[Mitchell]

A little research on this shows that North Korea's original approach (in the early 1990's) was to separate plutonium from nuclear fuel rods, along the lines I was suggesting. After the 1994 Carter agreement, the North Koreans secretly kept working on their nuclear program, but they changed their choice of nuclear material from plutonium to enriched uranium. The centrifuges that Pakistan has been accused of providing to North Korea were intended by the North Koreans to be used in enriching uranium.

As for this new report, of Pakistani assistance just this past summer, I suspect that Batchelor is right in referring to centrifuges, but incorrect in mentioning plutonium rather than enriched uranium.

[Cat In The Hat]

the republican guard are an ARMORD division...........even Ex Iraqui government have said they can't fight an urban war.
Not to mention Sadam doesn't want them in Bagdad because some of them have spoken against him and there is word they might try and Kill him.

[Cat In The Hat]

in regards to the Last Post.......I wasn't speaking to Dallas.........................I was speaking to another Post..............Thank You!