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Thursday, July 10, 2008

Iraqi uranium: It was never a threat

Three times today I've been sent or otherwise directed to the following from Investor's Business Daily...
"Hear about the 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium found in Iraq? No? Why should you? It doesn’t fit the media's neat story line that Saddam Hussein's Iraq posed no nuclear threat when we invaded in 2003. It's a little known fact that, after invading Iraq in 2003, the U.S. found massive amounts of uranium yellowcake, the stuff that can be refined into nuclear weapons or nuclear fuel, at a facility in Tuwaitha outside of Baghdad. In recent weeks, the U.S. secretly has helped the Iraqi government ship it all to Canada, where it was bought by a Canadian company for further processing into nuclear fuel --- thus keeping it from potential use by terrorists or unsavory regimes in the region. This has been virtually ignored by the mainstream media. Yet, as the AP reported, this marks a 'significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy.' Seems to us this should be big news. After all, much of the early opposition to the war in Iraq involved claims that President Bush 'lied' about weapons of mass destruction and that Saddam posed little if any nuclear threat to the U.S. This more or less proves Saddam in 2003 had a program on hold for building WMD and that he planned to boot it up again soon... Saddam acquired most of his uranium before 1991, but still had it in 2003, when invading U.S. troops found the stuff... That means Saddam held onto it for more than a decade. Why? He hoped to wait out U.N. sanctions on Iraq and start his WMD program anew. This would seem to vindicate Bush's decision to invade."
No, it does not.

This type of uranium was never weapons grade, and was under constant seal and supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency. For the most part it was leftover from Iraq's foray into nuclear power (which didn't get far) but some of it was also medical waste.

Had Saddam tried to touch the stuff to make a nuclear weapons program out of it, it would have raised red flags bigtime and everyone would have been parked on his front lawn to demand that he stop.

If Saddam seriously wanted a nuclear weapons program, he should have never invaded Kuwait. But that's another story...

Uranium by itself is not fuel for a nuclear warhead. It takes a lot of processing to make it useful as a weapon. And I don't know if Iraq had either the technical means or the expertise to have even begun to attempt such a thing.

I've spoken with a lot of people in the field of nuclear engineering in the past few days and each of them has shared similar sentiments.

I've already shared this with one friend today. As I told her then, I'm not trying to "pick an argument" with anyone. But those are pretty much the facts of the matter. And it's better to educate people about what uranium can and can't do on its own, rather than give in to fear and worse: political convenience.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can we please get back to the important stuff like Charles Roark, Johnny Robertson, and all the losers who work at and watch WGSR?

Chris Knight said...

I don't know about the "losers" part because there are one or two people who work there and certainly more who watch it who I would never call that.

But as for the rest of what you wrote...

Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

Anonymous said...

I would not have wished for it if I did not want it.

Give me more Roark and Robertson trash talk!

Nobody cares about trivial crap like Iraqi uranium or George Bush's schemes.

Chris Knight said...

Something you should know anonymous...

1. This blog is about my thoughts on various issues and the things that interest me, which I think others may be interested in also. It doesn't adhere to any particular agenda or anyone else's for that matter.

2. If there is anything more forthcoming about the local cult calling itself the "Church of Christ", it will be in the fullness of time, at the proper time and not a moment sooner.

Anonymous said...

Chris can you give me a reason why Saddam had the yellow cake uranium? Where not the U N inspector thrown out of the country? The stuff has a value 60 to 85 dollars a pound, wouldn't he have sold it. Does anybody know where the uranium came from?

Anonymous said...

I heard Charles Roark and Johnny Robertson were manufacturing the Yellow Cake for Saddam.

David said...

Can you provide a link to the story and any other information. I think it helps build a better picture of what is really going on. Media Bias!