WOMD includes the nukes Saddam got from the old USSR right?
CBS News | Saddam's Nuke-Proof Bunker | March
30, 2003 22:26:15
... The bunker was designed to withstand a
nuclear blast 650 feet away as powerful as
the ... Saddam in the spring of 1984 when he was invited to
Baghdad around the ...
What me Worry?
Some 32 tons of HMX high explosive which the inspectors left under UN
seal in Iraq in 1998 have disappeared and remain unaccounted for. That is
more than 10% of the 228 tonnes the UN impounded before 1998.
HMX is used to create a nuclear detonation. The explosive is ignited and
"squeezes" the nuclear material, highly enriched uranium or
plutonium for the nuclear blast. Baghdad says it took the HMX for
industrial purposes, for mining in the cement industry.
"This could be tied to a reviving bomb programme," said Mr
Norris.
"It's very difficult to determine where every kilo of it goes. We're
working on it," said an IAEA source. "We don't have answers on
that. It'll take some time."
Uranium
"A focal point has been the investigation of reports of Iraqi
efforts to import uranium after 1991. The Iraqi authorities have denied
any such attempts. The IAEA will continue to pursue this issue."
The assessment
Tony Blair's "intelligence dossier" on Iraq last year
alleged that Baghdad had been smuggling in unprocessed uranium or
yellowcake from Africa. The nuclear inspectors have been unable to find
any trace of the alleged uranium. A large part of Mr El Baradei's plea
for more time and for greater assistance from the CIA and MI6 concerns
such smuggling allegations.
The Iraqi scientist questioned a fortnight ago followed a British
intelligence tip-off, sources say. But British emphasis on the importance
of the scientist proved misplaced, they add. "The results were not
significant."
Some 3,000 pages of documents on the illicit nuclear project were found
at the home of the scientist, but the information related to before 1991,
the programme the IAEA says it "neutralised" and provided no
information relating to the crucial period since 1998 when the inspectors
left Baghdad. Undermining the IAEA argument is the expert view that the
lack of nuclear fuel is all that is keeping Saddam from having a nuclear
bomb.
Mr Norris said that the interview with the scientists a fortnight ago
threw up evidence that Iraq had also been exploring laser technology for
uranium enrichment, a more advanced method than the centrifuges and the
aluminium tubes.
"We were surprised at the revelations [in the 1990s] that Saddam had
capable people and he was quite far along. They still have all that
know-how and probably quite a lot of components squirreled away," Mr
Norris said.
"The problem is getting enough fissile material to make a bomb. Iraq
doesn't have it. North Korea has hundreds of tonnes of it. There's an
enormous Russian stockpile. You might be able to buy it on the black
market."
� Mr El Baradei concluded by stressing the importance of
inspections: "We have to date found no evidence that Iraq has
revived its nuclear weapons programme since the elimination of the
programme in the 1990s. However, our work is steadily progressing and
should be allowed to run its natural course. We should be able within the
next few months to provide credible assurance that Iraq has no nuclear
weapons programme. These few months would be a valuable investment in
peace because they could help us avoid a war.
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/1-27-2003-34489.asp?viewPage=7
