U.S. Nuke Find Claim in Iraq Critiqued

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

[crobnson]

So the marines are sitting up in Northern Iraq spinning tales and laughing their heads off.

[piasa]

The UN had already seized the above ground labs. The UN didn't even know about the below ground facilities. They knew only about "persistant rumors."

[dalereed]

"But an expert"

A smooth talking duffus with shiny shoes and a cheap suit that is 50 miles or more away from home!

[smith288]

"But underground facilities by definition are very hard to detect," he said. "When you inspect a place so often, you get overconfident about what you know. It would have been very easy for the inspectors to explain away any excessive radiation at Tuwaitha. The Iraqis could have hidden something clandestine in plain sight."

*Sigh*... Hiding a pink elephant in a barbershop.

[crobnson]

But according to their "experts" there isn't anything there that they don't know about.

[Kevin Curry]

"What happened apparently was that they broke IAEA seals, which is very unfortunate because those seals are integral to ensuring that nuclear material doesn't get diverted," the expert said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Why would he insist on anonymity? His conjecture is bogus, that's why. He is not at all sure of his assertion and he is hedging his bets to avoid humiliation. By hiding behind the curtain of anonymity he gets to take a cheap shot with almost no risk to his reputation if he is wrong.

[algol]

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.

Nobody, nobody in the original reports said anything about "weapons grade plutonium". That came from a silly-*ss "analysis" on Stratfor (on another thread here somewhere, which I debunked).

I wonder if it keeps being mentioned to make the real report seem silly when the final evaluation finds banned material the UN didn't know about, but no weapons grade plutonium.

(They also didn't discover "Saddam's nuclear weapons", just some unexpected rooms at a nuclear facility. Talk about leaping to conclusions.)

[ShotgunWillie]

Y-A-A-A-H-A-A-A-H!

We planted it, didn't we? DIDN'T WE!! Of COURSE, the US military (or, better yet, the CIA) planted this crap in a clay craphole underneath an Iraqui nuke facility so WE could find it and claim the UN missed it! Oh, my suds 'n' body! Oh, my sainted HAT! Oh, God, bless us, mess us, and confess us! Holy smoke, mirrors, and Christmas-tree tinsel!

We planted it, that much is sure. A benevolent, caring man like Saddam would NEVER try to pin such an atrocity on his grateful, oppressed pipples, now, would he?

[The Hon. Galahad Threepwood]

I believe that it came from an embedded reporter with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

"After a quick inspection at what military authorities call the 'Yellowcake Facility' a few hundred meters offsite, the Army specialists told the Marines they suspect Al-Tuwaitha harbors weapons-grade plutonium."

[piasa]

They're pretty cocky in assuming that, since they're not there now and have no way of knowing what is there now. They can guess, but they don't know. To be blunt... they weren't exactly able to honestly say they knew about everything there then, either.

[algol]

Thanks for the link. The original story I saw earlier didn't mention that (it went on more about the difficulty of creating the underground complex in the first place).

Interestingly, the later, similar story by the same reporter downplays the plutonium report, and has dropped the words "weapons-grade" from what the Army specialists told the Marines.

[Nucluside]

I smell a 'Rat(s)!!!

[mhking]

I thought Baghdad Bob was out of a job...