Nuke component unearthed in Baghdad back yard

CNN ^ | 25 June 2003 | From David Ensor

[July 4th]

WASHINGTON (CNN) --The CIA has in its hands the critical parts of a key piece of Iraqi nuclear technology -- parts needed to develop a bomb program -- that were dug up in a back yard in Baghdad, CNN has learned.

[Darksheare]

Do you even know what you are talking about?
The UN AWAAAAAYS back after desert storm said that Iraq shouldn't have chem, bio, or nuke materials of ANY kind whatsoever.
And they had inspectors in country to check for compliance.
Iraq kicked the inspectors out, and there are several tons of chemical weapons MISSING that WERE accounted for back when the inspectors left.
They'd left monitoring equipment in place in the warehouse WITH the weapons.
Blix and boys came back, and guess what?
The equipment AND weapons were MISSING.
Well, gee?
What does THAT mean?
You're a bright boy, you figure it out.

Besides, having the centrifuge or ANY weapons development technology is against UN resolutions.
Resolutions that the UN failed to enforce.
How about actually reading history?

[FreedomForce]

January 28, 2003 State of the Union Address

"Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent. Since when have terrorists and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting us on notice before they strike? If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late. Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option."

Imminent threat wasn't the criterion for removing Saddam.

[RAT Patrol]

LOL!

[Darksheare]

Yeah, sneakers can be the most disgusting and dangerous thing to run into unprotected.
Especially if they're free range and in hiding under the bed waiting for unsuspecting prey.

[Normal4me]

"Twelve years ago, Saddam Hussein faced the prospect of being the last casualty in a war he had started and lost. To spare himself, he agreed to disarm of all weapons of mass destruction. For the next 12 years, he systematically violated that agreement. He pursued chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, even while inspectors were in his country. Nothing to date has restrained him from his pursuit of these weapons -- not economic sanctions, not isolation from the civilized world, not even cruise missile strikes on his military facilities."

2003 State of the Union

[swheats]

Does this mean that Dean was still right?

The guy has to be a first class clymer to come out and say "I was right" against the war in Iraq without having any information or intel.

[VRWC_minion]

If the plan were so vital, why did Saddam not hide it himself in a much safer place rather than relying on scientists to hide them in their backyards?

Because where is the first place every inspector wanted to search ? (Are you this dumb or are you hearing the chain saw and getting scared ? )

Considering that Scientists are the first to be investigated and put under pressue to reveal details of the progam, it does not make sense that a shrewd man liek Saddam would let his scientists have such plans.

Your kidding right ? Any scientist that survived Saddam would either stay loyal or die or worse. Why do you think Bush wanted to question them out of Iraq ? Why do you think saddam wouldn't let them be interviewed alone ? Only a DU'er or rabid Bush hater would even ask this question

These scientists can defect any time, they can blackmail saddam, they can destroy the plan - it is just too risky for Saddam, too risky for his nuclear plans.

Yep. All they had to do is book a flight on Travelocity for them and their family.

If Saddam had any interest in reviving the program, he would do a better safekeeping of such plans and not leave it to the mercy of scientists, who might die tommorrow or defect to enemy camp.

What better way to maintain the program than having spread out the parts among several places and people that have no idea about each other ? Its better than keeping them centralized in one place in one of his palaces where they could be discovered or stolen by an enemy within his ranks.

But if Saddam had really dismentled the program, and thought that he would not be ervive it for forseeable future, he than wouldn't care what his scientists did with the dismenteled plans - and some zealous scientists, to gain notoriety in Islamic world where such things are much sought after, might have chosen to hide the plans rather than destroy them.

If he didn't care what happened thenm why was this guy so fearful even now ? You really make no sense.

It is a fact that Saddam had such program at one time. That he dismentaled the program under pressure.

Granted

That he did not revive the program for last 10 years.

We don't know this.

That at the time of war, he didn't have such program in operation or planning.

This contradicts what this scientist said. He said Saddam wanted to revive the program.

Discovering decade old plans for a program that was sucessfully dismentaled years ago does not amount to smoking gun.

It shows the lengths that Saddam would go to to not comply with his terms of surrender and how the threat of his developing nuclear weapons in the future was more than an unwarranted fear.

It shows deseperation and willing to cluch at straws to save face, now that not finding WMD has become a political liability for pro-war proponents.

The only folks looking desparate and clutching at straws are the Bush haters.

Sorry, such finds still don't cut it. One has to prove that WMD existed (mere intention don't count) in Iraq

No. Such a proof has been rejected by the American people as being necessary for the war to be justified.

and they represented real and imminent threat to USA,

Neither Bush nor Blair ever made this case. Your attempting to rewrite historyu.

He actually made the WMD threat so imminent that the policy of containment had to be replaced by pre-emptive war.

Again, the policy of pre-emptive war is not that a threat is inminent.

[MattAMiller]

Obviously Saddam just forgot to tell the inspectors about the nuclear program components he hid from them.

[votelife]

Former U.N. arms inspector David Kay, now in charge of the CIA search for unconventional weapons, started work two days ago in Baghdad. CNN spoke to him about the case over a secure teleconferencing line.

"It begins to tell us how huge our job is," Kay said. "Remember, his material was buried in a barrel behind his house in a rose garden. There's no way that that would have been discovered by normal international inspections. I couldn't have done it. My successors couldn't have done it."

This quote should be played over and over and over to those who said, give the inspections more time!!!!!!

[prairiebreeze]

thanks for your updates and links

Prairie

[Sacajaweau]

Even Blixen said we won't find them unless they tell us where they are.

[Wacka]

And an old one at that! The picture must be from the 80s. Check out that "modern" computer on the left!

[Cael]

Calm down there...Maybe you shouldn't break those Prozac pills in half next time, eh? Excuse me if, after all the imminent threat talk, I was naive enough to think that we would find something more than centrifuges that were buried under rosebushes for a decade.

I hope this scientist leads to more scientists who are willing to talk, but I'm not about to jump for joy and call this a smoking gun before more details come out...I've done that at least a half a dozen times already during this war only to be disappointed.

[prairiebreeze]

would you bury your washing machine or television in the back yard?

When all I had was CNN to watch, you don't know how tempted I was.

Prairie

[VRWC_minion]

So what you are saying is that the SOTU address was meant only for the ears of Saddam and the international community?

If Bush already had the authority and backing to go to war in Iraq, why would he need to sell it again? No good salesmen ever keeps selling after someone said yes. The US already said yes.

If you want to make the case that the SOU address was designed to get support for the war from the American people then please tell me how the vote turned out that must have happened after the address ? I don't recall voting, do you ? I also don't recall congress voting do you ?

So, if the purpose of the SOU address was to make a case for war, who was Bush making the case to and what was the result ? surely, you can provide the times and places of the votes that followed.

[Darksheare]

Maybe you should pay attention more to history and fact rather than DNC talking points and Hans Blix tear jerk fests?

[demlosers]

Boy, they sure come out of the woodwork when they feel their opinions/views are threatened. You sure took apart halflion's post.

[TomB]

after all the imminent threat talk, I was naive enough to think that we would find something more than centrifuges that were buried under rosebushes for a decade.

Could you please show us examples of "all the imminent threat talk"?

[Darksheare]

I was in the military, in artillery.
Artillery does two things: Blow things up and kill people.
Now, just because artillery blows it up, doesn't mean it was an imminent threat.
Comprehend?
NOW... the mere fact that the centrifuge was there is a violation of your precious UN resolutions.
I'm getting the distinct feeling that you didn't want us in Iraq at all.

You're forgetting that Iraq was ordered to disarm after Desert Storm.
You're purposefully being obtuse.
How about honestly listening and honestly looking at history?

[votelife]

you're post about Bush/SOTU was exactly what Rush said around October of last year after Congress voted. He said at that point everything was meant for an audience of Saddam and I guess to Europe to a lesser extent. Not to the US.