Flare Sci-fi Forums
Flare Sci-Fi Forums Post New Topic  Post A Reply
my profile | directory login | search | faq | forum home

  next oldest topic   next newest topic
» Flare Sci-Fi Forums » Community » The Flameboard » Iraqi scientist says materials for nuclear bombs in hand (Page 1)

  This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3   
Author Topic: Iraqi scientist says materials for nuclear bombs in hand
First of Two
Better than you
Member # 16

 - posted      Profile for First of Two     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020916-28573872.htm

quote:
Iraq is already using copies of pirated German equipment to process nuclear material for an atomic weapons program, according to a former Iraqi nuclear scientist who testified before the U.S. Senate this summer.
Khidir Hamza, who led a section of the Iraqi nuclear bomb program before his defection in 1994, said the devices may not be discovered even if U.N. inspectors are allowed to return to Iraq.
"The beauty of the present system is that the units are each very small, and in the four years since the inspectors left, they will have been concealed underground or in basements or buildings that outwardly seem normal."

quote:
"The amount of uranium it already has — conservatively estimated in a German intelligence report at 10 tons of natural uranium and 1.3 tons of low-enriched uranium — is enough for three nuclear weapons," Mr. Hamza said
quote:
The key was provided, he said, when German Karl Schaab showed the Iraqis how to build and operate a centrifuge in 1989, and later helped them build a second
quote:
"The whole centrifuge method of getting to a bomb is much easier for Iraq than, for example, it was for Pakistan, which took 17 years in going the same route," Mr. Hamza said. "They had to get it in bits and pieces, whereas we got a whole centrifuge and all the plans
quote:
Mr. Hamza, who was working on Saddam's weapons program when Israeli jets bombed the French-supplied 40-megawatt Osirak research reactor in 1981, confirmed long-held suspicions that the facility was to have been used to develop nuclear weapons material.
Scientists had planned not to divert the existing French-supplied highly enriched nuclear fuel — enough for one bomb — but rather blanket the reactor with natural or depleted uranium, which would produce plutonium. That would have made it possible to continue producing, eventually allowing repeated bomb production.

No wonder the French and Germans are balking at invasion... suppose the invading troops found evidence that the centrifuges were being used to prepare Uranium for bombs to use on Iraq's favorite target of convenience, Israel?

Headline next morning: "Germans helped Iraq prepare for Holocaust II!"

--------------------
"The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword

Registered: Mar 1999  |  IP: Logged
Lee
I'm a spy now. Spies are cool.
Member # 393

 - posted      Profile for Lee     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
How did Proteus put it? Oh, yes: fap, fap, fap.

--------------------
Never mind the Phlox - Here's the Phase Pistols

Registered: Jul 2000  |  IP: Logged
Vacuum robot lady from Spaceballs
astronauts gotta get paid
Member # 239

 - posted      Profile for Vacuum robot lady from Spaceballs     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Fucking Krauts. So unamerican and unpatriotic.
Registered: Oct 1999  |  IP: Logged
MinutiaeMan
Living the Geeky Dream
Member # 444

 - posted      Profile for MinutiaeMan     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Our friend Herr Doktor Schneider excepted, I hope? [Wink]

Honestly, I'm not surprised at all. We already know that the US sent plenty of weapons to Saddam to fight Iran, and how that CIA funding helped Bin Laden years ago...

Not that it's an excuse by any means, but the accounts of German or French assistance all mention pre-Gulf War timeframes only. Of course it's completely obvious in hindsight (and probably could've been predicted beforehand), but no one was expecting trouble from Iraq...

(Though didn't Saddam start the war against Iran, by making demands for land concessions?)

I dunno what that German scientist was thinking, though, helping the Iraqis out with a centrifuge. There isn't a legitimate civilian purpose for one of those things, at least of the quality needed to make weapons -- is there?

--------------------
“Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.” — Isaac Asimov
Star Trek Minutiae | Memory Alpha

Registered: Nov 2000  |  IP: Logged
Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256

 - posted      Profile for Cartman     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
 -

--------------------
".mirrorS arE morE fuN thaN televisioN" - TEH PNIK FLAMIGNO

Registered: Nov 1999  |  IP: Logged
darkwing_duck1
Member
Member # 790

 - posted      Profile for darkwing_duck1     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
^And that has WHAT to do with anything?

Simple truth: he likely has nukes (or is close to them) and we gotta take him out BEFORE some innocent city goes up in a mushroom cloud.

Registered: Mar 2002  |  IP: Logged
Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256

 - posted      Profile for Cartman     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Like Baghdad?

Truth is NEVER simple.

Registered: Nov 1999  |  IP: Logged
Wraith
Zen Riot Activist
Member # 779

 - posted      Profile for Wraith     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Whenever I see the 'Saddam will have nukes in X days/weeks/months/years' articles I get this strange feeling of deja vu. Mainly because the exact same articles appeared before the Gulf War 1.

I'm not a great fan of Saddam and am generally in favour of taking him out before he does anything unwise but I can't help feeling the constant media scaremongering is counterproductive. Also i can't help feeling that the Franco-German opposition to the war is at least partly because they don't like us or the Americans (well, the politicians don't at any rate)

--------------------
"I am an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman, which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when it suits me." --Jubal Harshaw

Registered: Feb 2002  |  IP: Logged
Nim
The Aardvark asked for a dagger
Member # 205

 - posted      Profile for Nim     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Give me one serious reason Saddam would actually use a thermonuclear device and it would somehow work in his favor.

--------------------
"I'm nigh-invulnerable when I'm blasting!"
Mel Gibson, X-Men

Registered: Aug 1999  |  IP: Logged
Omega
Some other beginning's end
Member # 91

 - posted      Profile for Omega     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Give me one reason anyone would attack and destroy the World Trade Center and not expect massive retaliation.

--------------------
"This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!"
- God, "God, the Devil and Bob"

Registered: Mar 1999  |  IP: Logged
Lee
I'm a spy now. Spies are cool.
Member # 393

 - posted      Profile for Lee     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
Except Saddam Hussein didn't attack the WTC, a certain Osama Bin Laden did, and he doesn't have any more time for Saddam than you do.

. . . You are aware of that, aren't you? I realise all these darkies look the same to you.

Unless this is all some cunning plan to draw Bin Laden into the open: Upon seeing that hated Iraqi regime toppled, he pops out of hiding to say thanks and you nab him. Nah, Dubya's not clever enough for that. 8)

--------------------
Never mind the Phlox - Here's the Phase Pistols

Registered: Jul 2000  |  IP: Logged
Cartman
just made by the Presbyterian Church
Member # 256

 - posted      Profile for Cartman     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
 -

Call it "Omegic".

Registered: Nov 1999  |  IP: Logged
TSN
I'm... from Earth.
Member # 31

 - posted      Profile for TSN     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
"I'm not a great fan of Saddam and am generally in favour of taking him out before he does anything unwise..."

The president of the US is actively promoting invading a foreign country w/o provocation, and it's Hussein people are worrying about?

Registered: Mar 1999  |  IP: Logged
Omega
Some other beginning's end
Member # 91

 - posted      Profile for Omega     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
How do you define "provocation"?

Except Saddam Hussein didn't attack the WTC, a certain Osama Bin Laden did, and he doesn't have any more time for Saddam than you do.

And, as usual, you completely miss the point. People as a whole have a tendency to be irrational and dangerous, especially those people who attack civilians for no real reason. Sadaam qualifies.

--------------------
"This is why you people think I'm so unknowable. You don't listen!"
- God, "God, the Devil and Bob"

Registered: Mar 1999  |  IP: Logged
PsyLiam
Hungry for you
Member # 73

 - posted      Profile for PsyLiam     Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post   Reply With Quote 
And Bush doesn't?

--------------------
Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.

Registered: Mar 1999  |  IP: Logged
  This topic comprises 3 pages: 1  2  3   

Quick Reply
Message:

HTML is enabled.
UBB Code™ is enabled.

Instant Graemlins
   


Post New Topic  Post A Reply Close Topic   Feature Topic   Move Topic   Delete Topic next oldest topic   next newest topic
 - Printer-friendly view of this topic
Hop To:


© 1999-2024 Charles Capps

Powered by UBB.classic™ 6.7.3