Posted on 07/12/2003 7:41:59 PM PDT by FlashBack
Here is what was said:
From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs. These are designed to produce germ warfare agents, and can be moved from place to a place to evade inspectors. Saddam Hussein has not disclosed these facilities. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed them.
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide.
The dictator of Iraq is not disarming. To the contrary; he is deceiving. From intelligence sources we know, for instance, that thousands of Iraqi security personnel are at work hiding documents and materials from the U.N. inspectors, sanitizing inspection sites and monitoring the inspectors themselves. Iraqi officials accompany the inspectors in order to intimidate witnesses.
Recently Sought!! Not Recently Bought!!
P.S. Ann Coulter ROCKS!! She just tore Mr. Rangel a new one on Fox...along with the other left-wing weenie that was on the Heraldo At Large show!!
In a parallel development... This week an Iraqi agent was arrested as a result of information gleaned from secret papers seized in Iraq the first week of the war.
A couple of Fox analysts (retired military) "speculated" that Bush and Blair already have confirmation of WMD, but are keeping that information close to the vest. Possibly holding on until next year.
The CIA is now leaking worse than Janet Reno's depends. Unless of course the NYT is making stuff up again.
Something big is about to break...
Q : Who provided the UN with the "forged" Niger/Iraq documents ?
A: "...Speaking before the U-N Security Council Friday, Mr. ElBaradei [The head of the U-N nuclear agency] dismissed documents provided by what he said were "a number of states" pointing to an agreement between Niger and Iraq for the sale of uranium between 1999 and 2001." - Source : VOA News Report, VOA Correspondent ALEX BELIDA, 03/07/03, via http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iraq/2003/iraq-030307-2d189eab.htm.
A.: "Mr. ElBaradei [The Egyptian head of the UN nuclear agency] says his agency reviewed correspondence from the government of Niger to compare the format, contents and signatures with those of the alleged uranium procurement-related documentation. He says after thorough analysis, the IAEA now believes documents which formed the basis for the claims of recent uranium transactions between Iraq and Niger, are in fact not authentic and the allegations are unfounded. ElBaradei also told the Council the IAEA discussed the charges with Iraq and Niger, both of which denied any such activity took place. He said Baghdad suggested the visit by an unidentified Iraqi official to a number of African countries, including Niger, in February 1999, might have given rise to the allegations. " - Source : VOA News Report, VOA Correspondent ALEX BELIDA, 03/07/03, via http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iraq/2003/iraq-030307-2d189eab.htm.
A : No.
"Michael Anton, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said that when Bush made the speech, there was other intelligence indicating Iraq had tried to acquire uranium from several countries in Africa. This other information, however, was not detailed or specific enough to prove such a contention, he said. Anton acknowledged such on Tuesday, but also said the documents were not the sole basis for the Iraq-Africa statement in Bush's speech. "Because of this lack of specificity, this reporting alone did not rise to the level of inclusion in a presidential speech," Anton said. "That said, the issue of Iraq's attempts to acquire uranium from abroad was not an element underpinning the judgment reached by most intelligence agencies that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program." - "Bush Defends Use of Iraq Intelligence," By TOM RAUM, ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 09, 2003 via las Vegas Sun
Late 1970s to 1982 : (IRAQ OBTAINED UO2 FROM NIGER'S ONAREM (Office National des Resources Minieres))
* Niger ships yellowcake to Iraq in two batches. Batch one, which consists of 432 drums and 137,435kg of yellowcake, is received. —Fourth Consolidated Report of the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency under paragraph 16 of Security Council resolution 1051 (1996), S/1997/779, 8 October 1997, pp. 25-26, ; Fact Sheet: Iraq's Nuclear Weapon Programme, IAEA Action Team, .
1982 : (IRAQI AGENTS PAID $60 MILLION TO ITALIAN SMUGGLERS TO TRY TO OBTAIN SMUGGLE ENRICHED URANIUM, GETS SNOOKERED; THEN SUCCEED IN OBTAINING YELLOWCAKE TO ENRICH ON ITS OWN FROM CHINA, BRAZIL AND NIGER) In 1982 Iraqi agents paid $60 million to a team of Italian-based smugglers who claimed to have access to stores of plutonium and highly enriched uranium. According to U.S. officials, the smugglers' offer was a fraud, and the Iraqis walked away from it empty- handed. Stung by those setbacks, Baghdad turned to a third means of joining the nuclear club: the enrichment of uranium to weapons-grade level in gas centrifuges. The centrifuges take uranium-bearing ore or a mixture called yellowcake and separate out the 3% of uranium 235, which is fissionable, from the 97% of uranium 238, which is not. Iraq is known to possess 250 tons of yellowcake, most of it purchased in the 1970s from Brazil, China and Niger. In recent years the country has also begun producing its own yellowcake from mines in northern Iraq. - "When Will Saddam Get the Bomb? Not nearly so soon as the Bush Administration claims, "By William R. Doerner, December 10, 1990 via TIME Capsule, The Evolution of the Iraqi Threat, Monday, May. 13, 2002 of http://www.time.com/time/classroom/article/0,12422,235482,00.html.
1982 : (IRAQ GETS YELLOWCAKE FROM NIGER & PORTUGAL) Iraq obtains 426 drums containing 139,409kg of yellowcake from Niger and 487 drums containing 148,348kg yellowcake from Portugal. —Fact Sheet: Iraq's Nuclear Weapon Programme, IAEA Action Team
And there is this unconfirmed report :
MARCH 2001 : (REPORTS THAT IRAQ HAD OBTAINED ENRICHED URANIUM FROM SOUTH AFRICA) "The BBC Correspondent programme in March 2001 uncovered evidence suggesting South Africa had supplied enriched uranium to Iraq in 1988. South Africa halted its weapons programme a year later and dismantled its weapons-making and enrichment capabilities before signing the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in 1991. Iraqi defectors, including a nuclear engineer and an assistant to Saddam Hussain's son Uday, had revealed that Iraq obtained uranium for its nuclear programme from South Africa. The deal had been signed in 1986 and the uranium delivered in 1988. - "Iraq 'sought African uranium,' Britain says Iraq wanted African uranium, "BBC News World Edition, Tuesday, 24 September, 2002, 10:59 GMT 11:59 UK
And that doesn't count just where it's been seeking.
No one denies that Iraq had a lot of yellowcake, or that some of it came from Brazil, Portugal, China and Niger. It had enriched uranium as well, from France among others. That's all documented by the UN.
I think one report was that they have found more of the stuff in Iraq than they expected from the inspector's records. I haven't read it yet, though.
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