So, what’s going on here then? Was one of the stated reasons for the invasion not the fact that Saddam Hussein was not co-operating with the UN inspectors? Does this strip yet another layer of legitimacy from the pre-war manifesto?
Now it would probably just be another episode of laughable incompetence if it wasn’t for the ramifications of this:
Looks like all of those terrorists who were failing to get any materials from Saddam Hussein may be in luck after all…
Is there anyone left now who really believes that the Iraq war has achieved anything in terms of counteracting either terrorist activity or proliferation of dangerous materials?
This would be almost funny if it weren’t so pathetic and serious. Of all the ironies, Iraq was actually cooperating more with the IAEA before the war than it is now!
Like elucidator and others have said…You just can’t make shit this crazy up!
Don’t worry, I expect the usual apologists will be along soon to tell us this is all part of a cunning Bush plan to stop terrorists getting WMD tech by hiding everything, including the buildings among the general populance.
There’s one aspect to this whole story that I frankly can’t make heads or tails of, a logical disconnect, if you will.
Let’s assume the IAEA is correct, and that a lot of material “of proliferation significance” has, since the U.S. invasion, been transferred elsewhere. It also appears, from various reports, that the U.S. was well-aware that this stuff existed, and knew where it was. If those assumptions are correct, then wouldn’t the Bush administration have been trumpeting the discovery of these nuclear materials to the high heavens? Wouldn’t they have been screaming, “See, we told you Saddam had an active nuclear weapons program, that he had the means to produce wildly dangerous stuff?”
The lack of crowing by the administration tells me, on the contrary, that this material is not “of proliferation significance,” that it’s just a bunch of rusty, useless stuff (perhaps contaminated with radiation), left over from a long moribund program. If so, then, what’s the IAEA exercised about? Are they exaggerating the importance of the stuff that’s taken a walk? If so, why?
As Early said, i too am slightly baffled by this news. The BBC report last nite mentioned yellowcake dust and high levels of radiation in the urine of locals who now live on one of the “looted” sites ( dont know if i can get a transcript of that news item … but will try if asked)
Is Bush unable to crow about this because it makes the coalition look like idiots - for not immediatly securing the sites, about which we were so worried, we just had to invade?
If any of the material taken from these sites ends up in a dirty bomb, ( and i am guessing that you can trace radioactive " fingerprints "), would it be correct to lay the coalition directly and immediatly responsible? Afterall, had this happened when Saddam was in power, it would have been absolute proof that our worst fears were correct - he was allowing radioactive material out of the country and into the hands of terrorists.
If this story is true, i am beginning to wonder how many ‘layers of legitimacy from the pre-war manifesto’ can be left. It seems like EVERY case put up by Blair / Bush to support the invation of Iraq, is shot to fuk.
Are there any arguments left???
All i can see is that either:
The IAEA is shit stiring.
The media is hyping.
Or the coalition had no plan whatsoever ( past pulling statues down )
At this moment i really dont know where to put my money.
From what I’ve been reading, all of this nuclear material is stuff that was basically impounded by the UN after Gulf War I. There’s no need to trumpet the news of this discovery, because everybody DID know precicely what and where it was. Officials came in, took an inventory, boxed everything up, and placed it under guard. It stayed that way for 12 years until Gulf War II, when the inspection agencies decided it was too dangerous to be in Iraq and pulled everybody out.
Then, somehow, these vital locations were never secured by US forces and some potentially dangerous material and equipment has gone missing.
Ah, thank you ElectricZ. That’s an explanation that actually does make sense, the explanation that I couldn’t quite piece together. And it also makes it more obvious that this whole affair is just one more example of the brilliant leadership our fair nation currently enjoys. (Resists urge to use rolleyes smiley…)
Newsnight on BBC talked about this last night and the host Gavin Esler was bemused by the fact that so much could have disappeared and it seems crossed the border up to a year after the coalition took power.
The building is worth money as well, prefabricated, easy to assemble etc.
Again on Newsnight they reported that there are rumors that in Dubai there are whole Iraqi manufacturing plants(manufacturing of the nasty kind) up for sale.