Saddam's Yellowcake
Disconfirmations Disconfirmed: Saddam Had Nuke Program
By Randall HovenBut today, on July 6, 2008, the Associated Press reports that
- Saddam Hussein had a nuclear program
- At the Tuwaitha nuclear complex just south of Baghdad
- Which included 550 metric tons (over 1.2 million pounds) of "yellowcake", or concentrated uranium
- And multiple devices that could be used in a nuclear weapon.
The AP does not say alleged nuclear program. It does not add "according to military experts." It simply says "Saddam Hussein's nuclear program."
That's pretty big news, isn't it?
For about five years now, those of us who thought Saddam Hussein probably had at least WMD programs, if not WMD themselves, have been called not only wrong, but illogical and insane.
One example was an article by Sharon Begley in the Wall Street Journal titled People Believe a 'Fact' That Fits Their Views Even if It's Clearly False . (Her article series is called, without irony, the "Science Journal".) Ms. Begley reported that "six months after the invasion, one-third of Americans believed WMDs had been found, even though every such tentative claim was discomfirmed [sic]." She cited psychologists to explain this strange behavior. They used terms like "world views" and "mental models."
Jim Lobe at CommonDreams.org (Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community) reported that "Three out of four self-described supporters of President George W. Bush still believe that pre-war Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or active programs to produce them." He went on to quote the director of the polling company as saying
"To support the president and to accept that he took the U.S. to war based on mistaken assumptions likely creates substantial cognitive dissonance and leads Bush supporters to suppress awareness of unsettling information about pre-war Iraq."
These findings on people's beliefs were based on a survey that asked people if they believed Saddam had WMD or WMD programs . Apparently, Sharon Begley, Jim Lobe and a whole lot of other people not only believed Saddam had no WMD programs, but that anyone who did believe such a thing was clearly illogical or insane. In fact, the only interesting question to them was what is wrong with our minds.
World views. Mental models. Cognitive dissonance. Suppressed awareness.
Fast forward to today. Now we hear from the Associated Press that "The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program -- a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium -- reached a Canadian port." That last "remnant" was 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium. That is over 1.2 million pounds of yellowcake! Also, the military had previously withdrawn "four devices for controlled radiation exposure ... that could potentially be used in a weapon." All this was located at "the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles south of Baghdad."
The AP even reminds us that
"Accusations that Saddam had tried to purchase more yellowcake from the African nation of Niger -- and an article by a former U.S. ambassador refuting the claims -- led to a wide-ranging probe into Washington leaks that reached high into the Bush administration."
By the way, is it illogical or insane to think that Saddam could not possibly obtain yellowcake, and did not even try to, because one former ambassador went to one country in Africa and said he couldn't find it there? What about after they found over a million pounds of it just south of Baghdad? Is it now considered reality-based to think Saddam "sought" yellowcake, just as President Bush said in his 2003 State of the Union address ?
Should psychologists study Sharon Begley's brain now that the disconfirmations have been "discomfirmed"? Should the CIA send Joe Wilson to Canada to monitor the destruction of the yellowcake he could not find in Africa?
So it looks like Saddam did in fact of a nuclear weapons program. So that brings the question with the economic pressure breaking down, Saddam continuing to deify the world and fund terrorists, shoot at are plains in the no fly zone and having a history of invading nations and with Iran and NK also trying to go nuclear what other choice did the USA but to overthrown him?
We know Saddam had every intonation of getting WMDS again. So even if Saddam did not have any WMDs I’m happy we did not wait until he did.
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Comment by jim— 2008/07/06 @ 05:39 PM — (Reply)
Took em five years to make some evidence, huh? Even if they found something (and I'm betting by tomorrow I'll find the article that says THEIR claims are total BS)Bush and his cronies still lied through their teeth multiple times by making it appear we were gonna get nuked in the imminent future and that they even knew the exact location of the programs. And they even admitted that the info they used to come to that conclusion was bogus. So now that they found anything are we supposed to believe know that their intelligence was good??? Intelligence and Bush - now that's an oxymoron.
Comment by Dugg— 2008/07/06 @ 07:43 PM — (Reply)
Comment by Dugg— 2008/07/06 @ 07:45 PM — (Reply)
Comment by Jr.— 2008/07/07 @ 01:47 PM — (Reply)
Comment by The— 2008/07/07 @ 04:39 PM — (Reply)
British Intelligence
Israel destroying the Saddams' first nuclear plant
all pre war
Comment by Elmers Brother— 2008/07/07 @ 02:22 PM — (Reply)
Comment by Elmers Brother— 2008/07/07 @ 02:40 PM — (Reply)
http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0geu8ZWt3JICDQBpURXNyoA?p=saddam+creation+of+the+cia&fr=yfp-t-203&ei=UTF-8
Comment by The— 2008/07/07 @ 04:41 PM — (Reply)
"I am lucky to be alive," writes Khidhir Hamza on the opening page of this memoir, which reads like a thriller. Hamza describes how he helped Saddam Hussein design a nuclear bomb over the course of 22 years. He has an amazing story to relate, and with the help of collaborator Jeff Stein, he tells it remarkably well. It begins with his cloak-and-dagger escape from Baghdad in 1994, then goes back in time to describe the education he received earlier in the United States. Hamza returned to his native Iraq, and Saddam seduced him into accepting the comfortable life of an atomic scientist trying to build a bomb for a megalomaniac. Hamza presents a terrifying, almost psychotic portrait of Hussein himself: the dictator--a man with "yellow, lifeless eyes"--has a paranoid fear of germs and a taste for Johnnie Walker Blue Label. He's prone to drunken rages and relies on sedatives to keep control of himself: "His personality grew more erratic with the ups and downs of the drugs, the liquor, and the pressures of command." Hamza recounts a story told by one of Saddam's doctors, in which the strongman was found "stomping about his palace bedroom in a blood-splotched shirt" near the body of a woman whose throat was slit.
Hamza was eventually kept under house arrest, and even threatened with torture. His escape was an astonishing feat, and the message he brought to the West is vital: "I have no doubt that Iraq is pursuing the nuclear option." The Gulf War slowed development, but failed to shut it down. The coalition that knocked Saddam out of Kuwait has fallen apart, and United Nations inspectors no longer try to keep him in check. Hamza urges policymakers to confront Saddam, and suggests that the CIA redouble its efforts to help topnotch scientists flee from their virtual captivity. If rogue nations experience a brain drain, he says, their capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction will suffer. Saddam's Bombmaker is hard to put down and essential reading for anybody interested in national security.
Comment by Elmers Brother— 2008/07/07 @ 02:43 PM — (Reply)
http://www.iraqsnuclearmirage.com/YellowTimes/Khidhir_Hamza_The_Bogus_Intelligence_Source.htm
Comment by The— 2008/07/07 @ 04:43 PM — (Reply)
Comment by Ed— 2008/07/07 @ 05:51 PM — (Reply)
I just happen to know the truth. I know it sounds crazy when all you've ever heard are the lies. It's not my fault.
Comment by Dugg— 2008/07/08 @ 07:05 AM — (Reply)
Comment by Ed— 2008/07/08 @ 04:33 PM — (Reply)
Hell, if THEY whack him - she could still get in there.
Comment by Dugg— 2008/07/08 @ 05:21 PM — (Reply)
Comment by Ed— 2008/07/08 @ 06:06 PM — (Reply)
Comment by aza spade— 2008/07/07 @ 06:00 PM — (Reply)
Comment by Barry G.— 2008/07/07 @ 06:01 PM — (Reply)
Don't hate the messenger.
Comment by The— 2008/07/07 @ 06:57 PM — (Reply)
Comment by The— 2008/07/07 @ 04:46 PM — (Reply)
Comment by aza spade— 2008/07/07 @ 06:04 PM — (Reply)
Comment by Ed— 2008/07/07 @ 06:07 PM — (Reply)
this is the big one lizabeth! I'm comin to see ya
Comment by The— 2008/07/07 @ 06:54 PM — (Reply)
Bush said they didn't have any weapons or anything to do with 911. This is a unique and valuable clip - it contains the first and only known instance he ever told the truth.
Comment by Dugg— 2008/07/08 @ 05:57 AM — (Reply)
Comment by aza spade— 2008/07/08 @ 07:57 AM — (Reply)
Comment by Ed— 2008/07/08 @ 06:07 PM — (Reply)
Comment by jim— 2008/07/08 @ 06:22 PM — (Reply)