quote:UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Some Iraqi nuclear facilities appear to be unguarded, and radioactive materials are being taken out of the country, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency reported after reviewing satellite images and equipment that has turned up in European scrapyards.
quote:The United States has virtually cut off information-sharing with the IAEA since invading Iraq in March 2003 on the premise that the country was hiding weapons of mass destruction.
No such weapons have been found, and arms control officials now worry the war and its chaotic aftermath may have increased chances that terrorists could get their hands on materials used for unconventional weapons or that civilians may be unknowingly exposed to radioactive materials.
So now, not only has the U.S. failed to find any WMDs in Iraq's possession, but its invasion may have INCREASED the chances that terrrorists and rogue nations get their hands on nuclear material that was previously guarded by Saddam's regime.
Posts: 2432 | Registered: Feb 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Did nobody care about this? I thought it would be a big concern, given how much we were worried about terrorists getting their hands on WMD materials prior to the war. They could be making dirty bombs with this stuff.
Posts: 2432 | Registered: Feb 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I thought Sadaam didn't have any nuclear material that could be used in making a "dirty bomb". That would be a WMD.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Most of the material (expended fuel) can be used to make a dirty bomb. That in itself doesn't constitute WMDs.
Posts: 986 | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
The nuclear material Saddam had was stuff declared to the U.N., and legal.
You can use almost any radioactive stuff to make a dirty bomb, because a dirty bomb is essentially just a regular bomb with radioactive stuff placed in it to be spread out by the blast.
Posts: 2432 | Registered: Feb 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Maybe Dubya is counting on his friend Osama to use a dirty bomb to save his re-election.
Wake up, Pixiest. Or at least occasionally watch the news. Iraq's possession of nuclear material is old old old news. And it was reported a year ago that the US Marines in charge of the area containing Saddam's nuclear research site ignored US military inspectors recommendations that the site be guarded, instead allowing Iraqi villagers to loot the site.
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
