Nuclear materials found in Libya (UN on defensive)

WashPost ^ | Dec. 30, 2003 | Daniel Williams

[witnesstothefall]

In buildings scattered in urban neighborhoods and suburbs of the capital, crates were found that held hardware for machinery capable of purifying uranium for use in nuclear weapons. Two structures contained rooms where such equipment had been installed.

The Libyans displayed dozens of centrifuges, the devices necessary to enrich uranium to weapons-grade, ElBaradei said. By comparison, Iran possesses thousands.

"What we have seen is all the equipment they have imported," said ElBaradei, who declined to specify the origin of the imported centrifuges, steel piping and other equipment.

[witnesstothefall]

el Baradei has been spinning like a top since Ghadafi came in from the cold. He and his organization have been proven to be professionally incompetent and dangerously ill-informed, fatal shortcomings in the wmd antiproliferation business.

Ridiculous statements like "What we have seen is all the equipment they have imported," causes one to doubt whether thorough investigation is even on this man's agenda.

[af_vet_1981]

el Baradei has been spinning like a top since Ghadafi came in from the cold.

Could it be that alBaradei is a covert member of the Axis of Evil ? What better position for them to have a confederate in ...

[Loyal Buckeye]

Against Elbaradei's wishes, the U.S. is going to send its own inspectors to Libya.

[Shermy]

He said that the paraphernalia so far does not point to the former Soviet Union, frequently a prime suspect, as a source.

A "sophisticated" black market, he said, has grown up since the end of the Cold War and extends through Europe and Asia. Countries do not have to purchase complete enrichment systems from a single source, he said, but instead can buy pieces of equipment from many suppliers and cobble them together.

Who's he covering for???

And why doesn't our government name names?

[Dark Wing]

fyi

[aruanan]

Ridiculous statements like "What we have seen is all the equipment they have imported," causes one to doubt whether thorough investigation is even on this man's agenda.

"All" can be used in English to refer to the broad spectrum of various things, but not to every last individual item.

[tbpiper]

why doesn't our government name names

Leverage.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

ping

[barker]

Who's he covering for???

France????

[truth_seeker]

"Could it be that alBaradei is a covert member of the Axis of Evil ?"

Assuming he's a muslim, that is evidence enough for me.

He would be out, because he's arab-muslim. Blix would be out because he's a dumbass, EU politico-double-speaker.

[witnesstothefall]

That is true, that is one possible way to read his statement, though it is not the plain meaning of the words.

Also true is that el Baredei has not come out aggressively calling for a complete and thorough accounting of treaty offenses or even present programs in Libya. He sounds as though he's being forced to do his job, as he was forced to issue a report that ultimately soft-pedals Iran's own covert banned nuke program.

Frankly, el Baredei inspires extreme mistrust and lack of confidence in all his pronouncements and initiatives. He seems in no hurry to actually find banned wmd programs and eradicating them.

[Pan_Yans Wife]

If he finds them all... couldn't his job then be considered "complete"? Why would he want to do that? I think his ego enjoys his position of power.

[stripes1776]

Against Elbaradei's wishes, the U.S. is going to send its own inspectors to Libya.

That's great news. The UN, besides being incompetent, cannot be trusted with anything this serious.

[Montfort]

Hey. Maybe Qadaffi is just turning over some stuff that he was holding "in trust" for Saddam. Funny how this happened right after we got Saddam, so there is no longer much of a chance that Saddam will be needing it.

The alternative was to hold on to the nuclear stuff, which just doesn't look like so attractive these days.

[af_vet_1981]

I'm hoping/assuming they medicated Saddam (the stakes are too high not to. I don't want millions of Americans dead) and he has implicated the big fish.

[af_vet_1981]

Frankly, el Baredei inspires extreme mistrust and lack of confidence in all his pronouncements and initiatives

No. It is as if he is working for alQaeda/Syria/Iran/etc. as a sleeper.
Very Dangerous, My Precious ...

[RightWhale]

dozens of centrifuges

Just a start-up, a pilot project. Libya may have given up when they saw how much this was going to cost.

[caisson71]

Follow the money to see where WMD equipment comes from.

[stylin19a]

From the article:
""Low-level programs like this are difficult to detect. They can be run in a garage," he said. "You would have to be lucky or have very good intelligence to run across it. We're doing a lot of soul searching."

Of course, it's Waaaaaaaaaay different in Iraq. In Iraq, they run these programs out in the open..since they haven't been found, they must not exist </sarcasm off>