Posted on 09/26/2004 7:22:56 PM PDT by politicalvanguard.com
AN IRAQI scientist-turned-author says the most significant pieces of his country’s dormant nuclear programme were buried under a lotus tree in his backyard, untouched for more than a decade before the US-led invasion in 2003.
But their existence, Dr Mahdi Obeidi writes in a new book, is evidence that the international community should remain vigilant as other countries try to replicate Iraq’s successes before the 1991 Gulf war to develop components necessary for a nuclear weapon.
In The Bomb in my Garden, Dr Obeidi details Saddam’s quest for a nuclear bomb: "Although Saddam never had nuclear weapons at his disposal, the story of how close Iraq came to developing them should serve as a red flag to the international community."
In the book, published tomorrow, Dr Obeidi details his research through nearly a quarter of a century under Saddam, including the designs for key components and prototypes for nuclear production, buried in a plastic drum next to his rose garden. Probably just two of Saddam’s most trusted deputies knew the whereabouts of the research, he says.
While only the former president knows fully why he did not restart his nuclear programme, Dr Obeidi believes Saddam may have realised the scope of the massive undertaking. UN inspectors had dismantled the programme, removed stockpiles of enriched uranium and exposed Iraq’s international network of suppliers - and Saddam was doing well from the UN’s oil-for-food programme, while increasing his control over a population reliant on him for basics.
To get caught importing the components needed to produce a nuclear weapon, the scientist says, would have ended the programme. Yet Saddam kept his Iraq Atomic Energy Commission running, apparently without weapons programmes, as late as 2003.
"...and Saddam was doing well from the UN’s oil-for-food programme, while increasing his control over a population reliant on him for basics."
So, the UN was complicit in subsidizing Sadam's nuclear program (against the US and Israel no doubt).
Kofi - go to hell.
All Saddam was waiting for was the sanctions to be lifted. And it was headed that way with the "international community". Thank God we stopped him.
Iran or Syria?
North Korea - We didn't finish that war yet, only called a time out.
Can someone please....PLEASE....explain this to the BRAIN DEAD MSM and DEMS? PUULLLLEEEAASSSEEE!
Hello? Lotus=WATER LILY. How did they make THAT into a tree??
Yeah, but it would be easier to stop Iran before they had the weapons (if they don't already). NK knows if he uses them, it would be mutually assured destruction.
The wackos in the ME are all too willing to die for their fight. Gotta stop 'em before they get any bigger.
Oh yeah, and thanks Bill Clinton, for North Korea.
Yep - you're right.
The Muslims are crazy.
The Koreans are a bit more rational, but what if Kim Jon Il sells nuclears to the Islamists ???
This is also an out of control issue. Kim Jon Il would get to kill us through the Muslims - and avoid blame.
LOtus Tree
Definition: [n] shrubby deciduous tree of the Mediterranean region
Synonyms: Ziziphus lotus
See Also: bush, genus Ziziphus, shrub, Ziziphus
But remember, we stoped that big arms trader in Pakistan, and broke up a smuggling ring of just this sort of stuff.
They've got some kind of choke hold on this crap over there, and we're slowly increasing the pressure.
Especially Iran, we flank Iran on the right and left now. Coincidence?
Maybe no nuclear weapons, but Saddam had tons of radiological material capable of making numerous dirty bombs when combined with conventional explosives (making it a WMD). Thankfully much of that material is now safely stored where terrorists can't get to it. Hard to say what else is still out there though.
Locus tree?
That Saddam only had a nuke development program isn't a suprise. In fact, the Israelis had something to do with that program's demise when they bombed that nuclear reactor.
And, the west had knowledge that Saddam was messing around with the germs, but nothing concrete that he had stockpiles of weaponized germs.
What everyone knew (but the DNC seems for forget), beyond a shadow of a doubt, was that Saddam had the poisons. That's what he used against the Iranians and against the Kurds. What enquiring minds want to know is where those poison gasses went. That is the $200 million question.....
bump
A lotus tree? Shades of the "Pumpkin Papers."
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