(looted) Iraqi Nuclear Gear Found in Europe WASHPOST

[cspiguy]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13416-2004Apr14.html

Iraqi Nuclear Gear Found in Europe

By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 15, 2004; Page A22


UNITED NATIONS, April 14 -- Large amounts of nuclear-related equipment, some of it contaminated, and a small number of missile engines have been smuggled out of Iraq for recycling in European scrap yards, according to the head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog and other U.N. diplomats.

Mohammed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned the U.N. Security Council in a letter that U.N. satellite photos have detected "the extensive removal of equipment and, in some instances, removal of entire buildings" from sites that had been subject to U.N. monitoring before the U.S.-led war against Iraq.

ElBaradei said an IAEA investigation "indicates that large quantities of scrap, some of it contaminated, have been transferred out of Iraq, from sites monitored by the IAEA." He said that he has informed the United States about the discovery and is awaiting "clarification."

After the 1991 Persian Gulf War, U.N. inspectors discovered, inventoried and destroyed most of the equipment used in Iraq's nuclear weapons program. But they left large amounts of nuclear equipment and facilities in Iraq intact and "under seal," including debris from the Osirak reactor that was bombed by Israel in 1981. That debris and the buildings are radioactively contaminated.

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[cspiguy]

1. wingnuts will spin this as proof Saddam lied about WMD

fermenters and yellowcake. I say it is proof that looters are fine mesopotamian businessmen.

[htuttle]

4. Only if they don't pay attention

Though I suppose, they usually DON'T pay attention. This material wasn't from hidden sites.

All of this stuff was from formerly UN-monitored sites. These are the same sites that the US failed to monitor once it invaded Iraq, and whose formerly secure contents were looted and spread throughout the Middle East (and apparently Europe, according to this article).

The UN has been trying to get inspectors back into Iraq to examine what's left of these sites, and see how bad the looting and proliferation of their contents has been since the US invasion, but the Bush administration refuses to allow it.

[Mistress Quickly]

2. Well whoopee

The UN is now supporting the BIG LIE of Bush. Wonder how much they're getting for it?

:puke:

[cspiguy]

3. it still does not support *. it just shows how badly we misunderplanned

the aftermath of ousting Saddam. Even if he still had bioweapons fermenters, they could not have been used or we would have found the products. The yellowcake is probably old, anyway.

[denverbill]

7. The UN isn't supporting a big lie. This isn't even news.

UN weapons inspections had identified and tagged all of this crap from the Gulf War days. The US fucked up during the invasion and left these KNOWN sites totally unguarded. Locals looted them and sold what they found for scrap. How fucking surprising is that?

It's not proof that Saddam was actively pursuing nukes. It's proof that Saddam's nuclear program had been destroyed in 1991.

[Moderator]

5. cspiguy

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
news source.

Thank you.

DU Moderator

[donhakman]

6. Don't forget the turkey farm of WMD