Jul 08 2008

Uranium Found in Iraq!

It seems that on Saturday Brian Murphy of the Associated Press is reporting that the US has removed uranium from Iraq.


The removal of 550 metric tons of “yellowcake” — the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment — was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam’s nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.

Holy Cow!  WMDs!  Saddam’s nuclear arsenal!  Condi’s smoking gun!  I came across this story at redstate.com where they are taking this effort as validation of Bush’s invasion!

Of course, if you read the whole story from Murphy, it’s kinda funny, and kinda sad…

Before I return to the story, let’s enjoy the crowing of the redstaters.  There are multiple essays (known as “blogs” at redstate) reporting the grand coup of President Bush in Iraq.

Bush was right!

It appears that when George W. Bush, the CIA, and Tony Blair said that Saddam Hussein had yellowcake uranium, which was a violation of the UN resolution after the Gulf War, and one of the reasons why the USA and UK invaded Iraq to start the war, they were speaking the truth. 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium was found recently in Iraq, that Saddam had hidden for over five years from UN weapons inspectors, and sold to Canada recently. Reported by Brain Murphy of the Associated press at ABC News. Yahoo has a copy of the story at their news site as well.

I am trying to submit this to Slashdot despite their liberal bias there. Please help with the story.

What Mr. Wilson Didn’t Look for in Africa...

British Nuclear Physicist, Dr. Norman Dombey, estimates a yield of 142 nuclear weapons. The source does not specify the mega-tonnage, throw weight or maximum effective ranges of the 142 nukes, however, Dr. Dombey does offer subjective opinion on the potential scope of a weapons program seeded with 550 metric tons of yellowcake.

“Iraq already had far more uranium than it needed for any conceivable nuclear weapons programme.”

Dr. Dombey continues.

“You have a warehouse containing 500 tons of natural uranium; you need 25 kilograms of U235 to build one weapon. How many nuclear weapons can you build?

“The answer is 142.”

So, what’s the problem with all this redstate excitement? First, the stuff is not weapons-grade material.  So the actual number of nuclear weapons one could build is ZERO.  Moreover,  the stuff is pre-1991 material!

Tuwaitha and an adjacent research facility were well known for decades as the centerpiece of Saddam’s nuclear efforts.

Israeli warplanes bombed a reactor project at the site in 1981. Later, U.N. inspectors documented and safeguarded the yellowcake, which had been stored in aging drums and containers since before the 1991 Gulf War. There was no evidence of any yellowcake dating from after 1991, the official said.

Whoops!   This uranium has been there since before the first gulf war.  And we knew it?

Not only does this information deflate the redstate hot air balloon, but it also motivates us to ask why Bushco cooked up the absurd yellowcake story in 2003.  It motivates us to ask why Democrats didn’t hammer Bush on this matter.  Could it be they all really wanted this war?  

oh, yeah.  I gave this a try over at the gee oh ess.

16 comments

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  1. so you don’t have to.

    • Edger on July 8, 2008 at 22:47
    • #

    Ummmmm…. who has been approving funding for it?

  3. top conservative blogs are providing this bold leadership for the country’s future, by arguing a five-year-old story (without the facts) that would be pointless now even if they were right.  Which they aren’t.  

  4. Wikipedia-

    Brian Murphy (born 1959) is the U.S. religion editor at the Associated Press and the author of a number of non-fiction books on religion, including “The New Men,” a chronicle of American seminarians in Rome, and “The Root of Wild Madder,” about the carpet trade in Iran and Afghanistan. He is a graduate of Boston College, where he was an editor of The Heights.

    Prior to his appointment as U.S. religion editor in 2006, Murphy covered religion internationally for the AP. He first joined the AP in Boston in 1987 and joined the International Desk in New York three years later. Murphy was posted to Rome in 1993. In 1997, he was named Athens bureau chief and began regular reporting from Iran.

    A veteran foreign correspondent, Murphy has covered stories for the AP in more than 40 countries, including the Rwanda genocide, the Balkan conflicts and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. His coverage of religion has included major events such as the death of Pope John Paul II and investigative reports on radical Islam and the rise of Christianity in Africa.

    Quite the coup for the U.S. religion editor of A.P.

    Whose agenda is he promoting? Jesus’s?

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