Posted on 07/20/2004 11:14:11 PM PDT by propertius
Edited on 07/21/2004 11:16:05 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Update from Wash Times: A U.S. military spokesman in Tikrit told United Press International that the report was untrue. "Nothing's been found. The report is not factual," said Master Sgt. Robert Cowens, a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division... A spokesman with Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's office told UPI that the report concerning the alleged missiles and warheads emerged "while gathering information for Saddam Hussein's tribunal" during the interrogation of a captured former official of Saddam's regime.
Al Sabah, the Iraqi newspaper funded by the Coalition Provisional Authority, reports on its front page this morning that a former senior Ba'ath party activist has led coalition troops to three nuclear warheads hidden in a bunker.
Will post translation when we have it.
To: All
Here is story in full:
Headline: Khidhur (or Khidhir) al-Douri, back from the dead, reveals three nuclear missiles
Sources in the Interior ministry and the National Security Advisor's Office refused to comment on news reports that three missiles with nuclear warheads had been seized during the arrest of Khidhur al-Douri, the former Ba'ath party member.
Iraqi political sources, who requested anonimity, inisisted that Iraqi security authorities arrested al-Douri and seized the missiles.
The same sources told al-Sabah that al-Douri, who held meany Ba'ath party positions during the former regime, was falsely pronounced dead on its demise. Forged death certificates had been circulated.
He was arrested in an area between Oja and al-Dour, in Salahidine province.
The same sources said three missiles were found with nuclear heads attached in a tunnel six metres underground.
A cement layer six metres thick had been built over the tunnel to hide it from scientific ray detection that could detect the radiation emitted by the nuclear heads.
The tunnel leading to the three missiles is connected to a small hole that opens out on the main road between Ouja and Dour.
The sources said al-Douri was arrested after sending an email, specifying the location and a meeting place in Tikrit.
Authorities analysed the message. Iraqi forces then moved into the area, laying a trap that snared al-Douri and his son.
Al-Douri then revealed the location of the missiles. Various light weapons and money was also seized during the operation.
ENDS
171 posted on 07/21/2004 12:00:20 AM PDT by propertius
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 146 | View Replies | Report Abuse ]
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
This could be interesting...
Your shi+ing me?
gee,that is scary. If that is correct and becomes public, well...
The economy may hiccup from sudden fright.
And Kerry?
Toast
I can hear the Left now:
"But he didn't use them!"
Hey, are you the guy that fed us the Alex Polier in Nairobi exclusive?
Is this our "Smoking Gun" or better yet "Smoking Nukes"?
This could be seriesly hugh!!
How credible is Al Sabah?
If this should prove true, then this will have been a VERY bad week for the 'rats.
Let's get real here... What's Arabic for horse****?
I know where I would like to shove these warheads, though....(Oh, Sandy....OH SANDY)
Well, gee, that would be news. But, say, haven't we seen about a few hundred breathless posts about the discovery of large caches of WMD that turn out to be nothing?
The Trouser/Socks-gate and now this!....if it is true.
My cup is overflowing.
ScaniaBoy
Doesn't count. No stockpiles-no WMDs.
Right. "But his missiles could only go 93 miles."
-PJ
The "English" link currently contains yesterday's edition.
Eh, I doubt it... I bet this is the last we will hear of it, with no further updates...
"But they were only low-yield." Nothing to see here. Move along now.
Maybe Saddam inadvertantly brought them home in his socks and then lost them.

This is huge!!! This is pegging my "Holyshi+ Meter".
I don't buy it. Nobody thought Iraq had working nuclear warheads.
Prototypes, perhaps?
DNC.. Oh please, they're old nukes from the 80's. Nothing to see here.
yes. But let's wait to see what happens on this. All the major agencies must have seen al sabah this morning, so wonder why no-one touching it yet. Maybe a lot of people chasing it up, but it could be a load of codswallop too.
Well the UN arms inspectors have been invited back, odd coincidence that both events would happen at the same time.
Time for Fox News to breathlessly report that this may be "the smoking gun"...for the 1,083rd time since March 2003.
That's the thing. Some would say not, because of its close links to the coalition and U.S. funding. But then again with links like that it could get the story first.
The UN arms inspectors were just invited back...
BTTT!
But will ABCNNBCBS run the story?
Oh, the media will pick up on it, the week after the election.
-PJ
H'lahrri
"We could never get the yellowcake to bake just right. It kept collapsing in the middle when Uday would body slam a peasant on the floor."
Leftist: "But he couldn't fire them from a bunker!"
do you have a link or the translation yet?
UN 'to detail lack of Iraqi WMDs'
Inspectors from the United Nations nuclear agency are to go to Iraq to "draft the final report on the absence of weapons of mass destruction" there.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3910915.stm
This will need verification and authentication.
Nuclear warheads in Iraq would be the story of the decade, and frankly the notion that this could be true raises more questions than it answers.
Like, where the sam hill did they come from?
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/specialreports/iraq/s_204373.html
U.N. inspectors prepare to return to Iraq within days
By The Associated Press
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
CAIRO -- U.N. inspectors will return to Iraq in the coming days following an official invitation from the new government, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency said Tuesday.
Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters in Cairo that Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari had formally asked his agency to return.
The inspectors, who will continue their work to ensure that Iraq complies with the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, will leave as soon as safety arrangements have been made, agency spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said from IAEA headquarters in Vienna, Austria. ElBaradei estimated they would depart in the next few days.
The inspectors will go to the Tuwaitha facility, 12 miles south of Baghdad, where they will "do an inventory verification on the nuclear material remaining in Iraq," Fleming added.
Besides safeguards inspectors, the agency also had weapons inspectors in Iraq who searched for nuclear weapons under a mandate issued by the U.N. Security Council. Those inspectors left just before the war began in 2003.
"The return of U.N. inspectors to Iraq is an urgent necessity; not to search for weapons of mass destruction, but to write the final report about the nonexistence of (such) weapons ... in Iraq, which will enable the lifting of sanctions," ElBaradei said in Cairo.
My fellow patriots:
We have all missed the obvious here:
The outcome of this story is the same for the left in any case.
Case one, it doesn't pan out
Case two, its true.
In either case the leftist howl-a-bots will proclaim to all
ITS BUSH'S FAULT!
The timing of the find will be called suspicious.
I hope they find them and take pitures of the WMDs!
notice how the online newspaper has the year as 2003? Im thinking this is crap
You Kenyans always seem to be in the know.
Why do you think Berger was destroying documents at such a feverish pitch?
-PJ
"Nobody thought Iraq had working nuclear warheads."
Nobody thought North Korea had them, either.
That being said, I don't buy it either. Oh, to be wrong.
No kidding! LOL
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.