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Do you get a lot headaches? I bet you do. I would.
UN: Iraqi Nuclear-Related Materials Have Vanished
By Irwin Arieff
Yahoo NewsUNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Equipment and materials that could be used to make nuclear weapons are disappearing from Iraq but neither Baghdad nor Washington appears to have noticed, the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency reported on Monday.
Satellite imagery shows that entire buildings in Iraq have been dismantled. They once housed high-precision equipment that could help a government or terror group make nuclear bombs, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report to the U.N. Security Council.
Equipment and materials helpful in making bombs also have been removed from open storage areas in Iraq and disappeared without a trace, according to the satellite pictures, IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said.
While some military goods that disappeared from Iraq after the March 2003 U.S.-led invasion, including missile engines, later turned up in scrap yards in the Middle East and Europe, none of the equipment or material known to the IAEA as potentially useful in making nuclear bombs has turned up yet, ElBaradei said.
The equipment -- including high-precision milling and turning machines and electron-beam welders -- and materials -- such as high-strength aluminum -- were tagged by the IAEA years ago, as part of the watchdog agency's shutdown of Iraq's nuclear program. U.N. inspectors then monitored the sites until their evacuation from Iraq just before the war.
The United States barred the inspectors' return after the war, preventing the IAEA from keeping tabs on the equipment and materials up to the present day.
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Well, at least Iraq does have WMD now.
Do you get a lot headaches? I bet you do. I would.
Don't worry, with all the satellites overhead, I'm sure we know exactly where the equipment went.
Probably will be using it to make our case for the next regime change.
But AHF, haven't you heard? There were no WMD in Iraq, so therefore there is nothing to worry about.
Damn, good point whott. Talk about a Catch 22.
Looks as though Dan has just admitted there was nuclear materials and WMD components/equipment in Iraq.
All the constant ing on this board, and he just burst his own bubble.
How could that be, Iraq didn't have any WMD capabilities...remember?
WMDs, not capabilities.
So where is this stuff?
Why worry? Iraq was no threat.
Not as advertised, certainly.
True Chump, I wonder what compelled Kerry to make that claim.
So if the US continues to play the UN game at some point the UN says Hussein has no WMDs which then leads to a push from his friends on the Security Council to lift the sanctions as well as a withdrawal of US forces from the region.
Then Hussein develops/procures the WMDs which he has planning to do once the sanctions were eliminated per the Duelfer report. Some of the WMDs take a matter of weeks while the nukes take a couple of years. Then Saddam has WMDs so then the US would be justified according to some in invading Iraq to remove him.
It was not known with absolute certainty what Hussein had in the way of weapons because he had never indicated what he had done with them, which of course was the entire point of the UN weapons inspections. The CIA was not the only intel agency which believed Hussein had them and the Bush administration was not the only presidential administration which believed that Hussein possessed WMDs well after he had destroyed them. Hussein's own military leadership did not know whether the nation possessed them or not.
Bush made a responsible decision. Again, the US was not the only nation which believed that Saddam had WMDs. The fact that WMDs did not turn up does not make it an irresponsible decision.
Had he opted to leave Hussein in power then I am sure there would have been a dozen crackpot conspiracy theories that some in this forum would be believing and flooding the forum with right about now.
Last edited by Marcus Bryant; 10-12-2004 at 08:31 AM.
Any sufficiently industrialized nation has the capability to produce WMDs.
Obviously, this was aging equipment, still being monitored. Kind of hard to build a nuclear weapon under those conditions.The equipment -- including high-precision milling and turning machines and electron-beam welders -- and materials -- such as high-strength aluminum -- were tagged by the IAEA years ago, as part of the watchdog agency's shutdown of Iraq's nuclear program. U.N. inspectors then monitored the sites until their evacuation from Iraq just before the war.
If anybody with a brain had read the article, this was equipment that was very clearly not being used for WMDs. Now we have lost it because of the war.
So leave Hussein in power and drop the sanctions?
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