www.guardian.co.uk/worldl...95,00.html
Iraqi Scientist Cautions About Nukes
Thursday September 23, 2004 9:01 PM
By KATHERINE PFLEGER SHRADER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - An Iraqi scientist-turned-author says the most significant pieces of his country's dormant nuclear program were buried under a lotus tree in his backyard, untouched for more than a decade before the U.S.-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,'' Obeidi details fallen Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's furious, and then abandoned, 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,'' Obeidi writes with his co-author Kurt Pitzer.
The Associated Press obtained an advance copy of the book, to be released Sunday.
Obeidi details his research through nearly a quarter-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 didn't restart his nuclear program, Obeidi believes Saddam may have realized the scope of the massive undertaking.
United Nations inspectors had dismantled the program, removed the enriched uranium stockpiles and exposed Iraq's international network of suppliers. And Saddam was making a mint off the U.N.'s oil-for-food program, while increasing his control over a population reliant on him for basics such as flour, Obeidi says. To get caught importing components needed to produce a nuclear weapon, the scientist says, would have ended the program.
Yet Saddam kept his Iraq Atomic Energy Commission running, apparently without weapons programs, as late as 2003.
``All we had left was the knowledge in our heads and the do ents buried in my garden,'' Obeidi writes.
In an upcoming report, U.S. weapons inspectors with the Iraq Survey Group are expected to conclude that Saddam had intentions of reinvigorating his weapon's programs, but no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
Obeidi, 60, was the creator of Iraq's centrifuge, a key component in one method of enriching bomb-grade uranium. He considers it the most dangerous piece of nuclear technology because related advances make it possible to conceal uranium enrichment programs inside one warehouse.
Obeidi and his colleagues were able to travel the world in the 1980s, collecting centrifuge research and components for their work from scholars and private companies in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, France, England and elsewhere. Then, Saddam had yet to become an enemy to the West.
By the late 1980s, Iraq was making breakthroughs. However, the international help dried up as Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990. The U.N. arrived after Saddam's 1991 defeat, intent on taking apart his weapons programs.
To hide signs of uranium enrichment then, Obeidi describes a massive demolition and reconstruction program he led to remove everything from the top soil to the coffee makers at his former centrifuge lab.
After the 2003 invasion, Obeidi attempted to take the nuclear secrets buried in his garden to U.S. authorities. He describes disorganization as the CIA and military intelligence wound up fighting over him.
Only after extensive negotiations involving former U.N. weapons inspector David Albright, who was in Washington, did Obeidi turn over all of his information.
Today, the U.S. government has brought he and eight family members to the East Coast. For security, the family's location is not disclosed.
Looking back, Obeidi struggles to find words to describe how he could arm Saddam, whose government at one point kept him from his family for six months so he could work and left them fearing the walls had ears.
He says it was a matter of national pride and scientific pursuit, but more than anything, it was fear: ``The idea of dozens of nuclear bombs in Saddam's hands is horrifying in retrospect.''
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
"Honey, I was digging up the soil for the garden, and I think I hit some big metal thing underground. It clanged whenever I hit it."
"Dear, that's the atomic bomb buried in the backyard that I told you about. I've told you to be careful about how deep you dig"
"Oh now I remember, honey. I just forgot all about it. I promise to be more careful next time."
"Damn, I thought I was the only one who buried my stash under the Lotus."
I bet there were golden plates there too....
dum-dum-dum dum-dum....
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