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CB
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 Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 11:04 am Post subject: U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq - Libs still in den |
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U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq
A Huge Stockpile Of Natural Uranium Arrives In Canada After Secret U.S.
Operation
(AP) The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge
stockpile of concentrated natural uranium reached a Canadian port Saturday
to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from
Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
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.
What is now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the remaining
radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles (19
kilometers) south of Baghdad - using teams that include Iraqi experts
recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.
"Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq," said a senior U.S.
official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The Associated
Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the
sensitivity of the subject.
While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called
"dirty bomb" - a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive
material - it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast.
Yellowcake also can be enriched for use in reactors and, at higher levels,
nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment.
The Iraqi government sold the yellowcake to a Canadian uranium producer,
Cameco Corp., in a transaction the official described as worth "tens of
millions of dollars." A Cameco spokesman, Lyle Krahn, declined to discuss
the price, but said the yellowcake will be processed at facilities in
Ontario for use in energy-producing reactors.
"We are pleased ... that we have taken (the yellowcake) from a volatile
region into a stable area to produce clean electricity," he said.
The deal culminated more than a year of intense diplomatic and military
initiatives - kept hushed in fear of ambushes or attacks once the convoys
were under way: first carrying 3,500 barrels by road to Baghdad, then on 37
military flights to the Indian Ocean atoll of Diego Garcia and finally
aboard a U.S.-flagged ship for a 8,500-mile trip to Montreal.
And, in a symbolic way, the mission linked the current attempts to stabilize
Iraq with some of the high-profile claims about Saddam's weapons
capabilities in the buildup to the 2003 invasion.
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.
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.
U.S. and Iraqi forces have guarded the 23,000-acre (9,300-hectare) site -
surrounded by huge sand berms - following a wave of looting after Saddam's
fall that included villagers toting away yellowcake storage barrels for use
as drinking water cisterns.
Yellowcake is obtained by using various solutions to leach out uranium from
raw ore and can have a corn meal-like color and consistency. It poses no
severe risk if stored and sealed properly. But exposure carries
well-documented health concerns associated with heavy metals such as damage
to internal organs, experts say.
"The big problem comes with any inhalation of any of the yellowcake dust,"
said Doug Brugge, a professor of public health issues at the Tufts
University School of Medicine.
Moving the yellowcake faced numerous hurdles.
Diplomats and military leaders first weighed the idea of shipping the
yellowcake overland to Kuwait's port on the Persian Gulf. Such a route,
however, would pass through Iraq's Shiite heartland and within easy range of
extremist factions, including some that Washington claims are aided by Iran.
The ship also would need to clear the narrow Strait of Hormuz at the mouth
of the Gulf, where U.S. and Iranian ships often come in close contact.
Kuwaiti authorities, too, were reluctant to open their borders to the
shipment despite top-level lobbying from Washington.
An alternative plan took shape: shipping out the yellowcake on cargo planes.
But the yellowcake still needed a final destination. Iraqi government
officials sought buyers on the commercial market, where uranium prices
spiked at about $120 per pound last year. It's currently selling for about
half that. The Cameco deal was reached earlier this year, the official said.
At that point, U.S.-led crews began removing the yellowcake from the
Saddam-era containers - some leaking or weakened by corrosion - and
reloading the material into about 3,500 secure barrels.
In April, truck convoys started moving the yellowcake from Tuwaitha to
Baghdad's international airport, the official said. Then, for two weeks in
May, it was ferried in 37 flights to Diego Garcia, a speck of British
territory in the Indian Ocean where the U.S. military maintains a base.
On June 3, an American ship left the island for Montreal, said the official,
who declined to give further details about the operation.
The yellowcake wasn't the only dangerous item removed from Tuwaitha.
Earlier this year, the military withdrew four devices for controlled
radiation exposure from the former nuclear complex. The lead-enclosed
irradiation units, used to decontaminate food and other items, contain
elements of high radioactivity that could potentially be used in a weapon,
according to the official. Their Ottawa-based manufacturer, MDS Nordion,
took them back for free, the official said.
The yellowcake was the last major stockpile from Saddam's nuclear efforts,
but years of final cleanup is ahead for Tuwaitha and other smaller sites.
The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency plans to offer technical
expertise.
Last month, a team of Iraqi nuclear experts completed training in the
Ukrainian ghost town of Pripyat, which once housed the Chernobyl workers
before the deadly meltdown in 1986, said an IAEA official who spoke on
condition of anonymity because the decontamination plan has not yet been
publicly announced.
But the job ahead is enormous, complicated by digging out radioactive "hot
zones" entombed in concrete during Saddam's rule, said the IAEA official.
Last year, an IAEA safety expert, Dennis Reisenweaver, predicted the cleanup
could take "many years."
The yellowcake issue also is one of the many troubling footnotes of the war
for Washington.
A CIA officer, Valerie Plame, claimed her identity was leaked to journalists
to retaliate against her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, who wrote
that he had found no evidence to support assertions that Iraq tried to buy
additional yellowcake from Niger.
A federal investigation led to the conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby,
Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, on charges of perjury and
obstruction of justice.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/05/world/main4235028.shtml?source=search_story
--
CB
Fair Use Notice:
This material is made available in an effort to advance understanding of
environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and
social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such
copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml |
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Matt
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 1:58 pm Post subject: Re: U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq - Libs still in |
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On Jul 10, 3:16 am, "CB" <C...@PrayForMe.com> wrote:
| Quote: |
U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq
A Huge Stockpile Of Natural Uranium Arrives In Canada After Secret U.S.
Operation
|
Yep, the yellowcake Iraq declared, that the IAEA monitored until they
were kicked out by the US,
and that was sealed.
What's your point? Seems like you neocons are the ones in denial.
Matt |
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Matt
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:18 pm Post subject: Re: U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq - Libs still in |
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|
On Jul 10, 12:11 pm, John Black <jbl...@texas.net> wrote:
| Quote: |
In article <e35189a9-c139-4076-a7ad-
f0624936b...@z72g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>, matttel...@sprynet.com
says...
On Jul 10, 3:16 am, "CB" <C...@PrayForMe.com> wrote:
U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq
A Huge Stockpile Of Natural Uranium Arrives In Canada After Secret U.S.
Operation
Yep, the yellowcake Iraq declared, that the IAEA monitored until they
were kicked out by the US,
and that was sealed.
What's your point?
The point is that the stockpile shows how strong of an interest Saddam
had in yellowcake. That this was all taken from him and sealed away
provided him the motivation to seek more, as the British Intelligence
Agency discovered him doing.
|
Really. And he declared it, as required by the rules. So, again,
what's the problem?
You do know we are in violation of the NPA, don't you? Should we be
invaded?
Matt |
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Guest
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:01 pm Post subject: Re: U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq - Libs still in |
|
|
On Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:16:05 -0400, "CB"
<CB@PrayForMe.com> wrote:
| Quote: |
U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq
|
So, if Saddam had these tons and tons of "yellow
cake"---why would he go out and attempt to buy it from
a country that had none to sell? |
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Larry Hewitt
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:51 pm Post subject: Re: U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq - Libs still in |
|
|
Rightards are still trying to insist that Iraq had a nuclear program.
Larry
"CB" <CB@PrayForMe.com> wrote in message
news:4875d41d$0$5947$9a6e19ea@unlimited.newshosting.com...
| Quote: |
U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq
A Huge Stockpile Of Natural Uranium Arrives In Canada After Secret U.S.
Operation
(AP) The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge
stockpile of concentrated natural uranium reached a Canadian port Saturday
to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from
Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
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.
What is now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the
remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about
12 miles (19 kilometers) south of Baghdad - using teams that include Iraqi
experts recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.
"Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq," said a senior
U.S. official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The
Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of
the sensitivity of the subject.
While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called
"dirty bomb" - a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive
material - it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast.
Yellowcake also can be enriched for use in reactors and, at higher levels,
nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment.
The Iraqi government sold the yellowcake to a Canadian uranium producer,
Cameco Corp., in a transaction the official described as worth "tens of
millions of dollars." A Cameco spokesman, Lyle Krahn, declined to discuss
the price, but said the yellowcake will be processed at facilities in
Ontario for use in energy-producing reactors.
"We are pleased ... that we have taken (the yellowcake) from a volatile
region into a stable area to produce clean electricity," he said.
The deal culminated more than a year of intense diplomatic and military
initiatives - kept hushed in fear of ambushes or attacks once the convoys
were under way: first carrying 3,500 barrels by road to Baghdad, then on
37 military flights to the Indian Ocean atoll of Diego Garcia and finally
aboard a U.S.-flagged ship for a 8,500-mile trip to Montreal.
And, in a symbolic way, the mission linked the current attempts to
stabilize Iraq with some of the high-profile claims about Saddam's weapons
capabilities in the buildup to the 2003 invasion.
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.
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.
U.S. and Iraqi forces have guarded the 23,000-acre (9,300-hectare) site -
surrounded by huge sand berms - following a wave of looting after Saddam's
fall that included villagers toting away yellowcake storage barrels for
use as drinking water cisterns.
Yellowcake is obtained by using various solutions to leach out uranium
from raw ore and can have a corn meal-like color and consistency. It poses
no severe risk if stored and sealed properly. But exposure carries
well-documented health concerns associated with heavy metals such as
damage to internal organs, experts say.
"The big problem comes with any inhalation of any of the yellowcake dust,"
said Doug Brugge, a professor of public health issues at the Tufts
University School of Medicine.
Moving the yellowcake faced numerous hurdles.
Diplomats and military leaders first weighed the idea of shipping the
yellowcake overland to Kuwait's port on the Persian Gulf. Such a route,
however, would pass through Iraq's Shiite heartland and within easy range
of extremist factions, including some that Washington claims are aided by
Iran. The ship also would need to clear the narrow Strait of Hormuz at the
mouth of the Gulf, where U.S. and Iranian ships often come in close
contact.
Kuwaiti authorities, too, were reluctant to open their borders to the
shipment despite top-level lobbying from Washington.
An alternative plan took shape: shipping out the yellowcake on cargo
planes.
But the yellowcake still needed a final destination. Iraqi government
officials sought buyers on the commercial market, where uranium prices
spiked at about $120 per pound last year. It's currently selling for about
half that. The Cameco deal was reached earlier this year, the official
said.
At that point, U.S.-led crews began removing the yellowcake from the
Saddam-era containers - some leaking or weakened by corrosion - and
reloading the material into about 3,500 secure barrels.
In April, truck convoys started moving the yellowcake from Tuwaitha to
Baghdad's international airport, the official said. Then, for two weeks in
May, it was ferried in 37 flights to Diego Garcia, a speck of British
territory in the Indian Ocean where the U.S. military maintains a base.
On June 3, an American ship left the island for Montreal, said the
official, who declined to give further details about the operation.
The yellowcake wasn't the only dangerous item removed from Tuwaitha.
Earlier this year, the military withdrew four devices for controlled
radiation exposure from the former nuclear complex. The lead-enclosed
irradiation units, used to decontaminate food and other items, contain
elements of high radioactivity that could potentially be used in a weapon,
according to the official. Their Ottawa-based manufacturer, MDS Nordion,
took them back for free, the official said.
The yellowcake was the last major stockpile from Saddam's nuclear efforts,
but years of final cleanup is ahead for Tuwaitha and other smaller sites.
The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency plans to offer technical
expertise.
Last month, a team of Iraqi nuclear experts completed training in the
Ukrainian ghost town of Pripyat, which once housed the Chernobyl workers
before the deadly meltdown in 1986, said an IAEA official who spoke on
condition of anonymity because the decontamination plan has not yet been
publicly announced.
But the job ahead is enormous, complicated by digging out radioactive "hot
zones" entombed in concrete during Saddam's rule, said the IAEA official.
Last year, an IAEA safety expert, Dennis Reisenweaver, predicted the
cleanup could take "many years."
The yellowcake issue also is one of the many troubling footnotes of the
war for Washington.
A CIA officer, Valerie Plame, claimed her identity was leaked to
journalists to retaliate against her husband, former Ambassador Joe
Wilson, who wrote that he had found no evidence to support assertions that
Iraq tried to buy additional yellowcake from Niger.
A federal investigation led to the conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby,
Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, on charges of perjury and
obstruction of justice.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/05/world/main4235028.shtml?source=search_story
--
CB
Fair Use Notice:
This material is made available in an effort to advance understanding of
environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific,
and
social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such
copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law.
For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
|
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John Black
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2008 11:11 pm Post subject: Re: U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq - Libs still in |
|
|
In article <e35189a9-c139-4076-a7ad-
f0624936bfec@z72g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>, matttelles@sprynet.com
says...
| Quote: |
On Jul 10, 3:16 am, "CB" <C...@PrayForMe.com> wrote:
U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq
A Huge Stockpile Of Natural Uranium Arrives In Canada After Secret U.S.
Operation
Yep, the yellowcake Iraq declared, that the IAEA monitored until they
were kicked out by the US,
and that was sealed.
What's your point?
|
The point is that the stockpile shows how strong of an interest Saddam
had in yellowcake. That this was all taken from him and sealed away
provided him the motivation to seek more, as the British Intelligence
Agency discovered him doing.
John Black |
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CB
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 3:45 am Post subject: Re: U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq - Libs still in |
|
|
"Matt" <matttelles@sprynet.com> wrote in message
news:9ab2356d-7767-453c-baed-696ea7927e93@34g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
On Jul 10, 12:11 pm, John Black <jbl...@texas.net> wrote:
| Quote: |
In article <e35189a9-c139-4076-a7ad-
f0624936b...@z72g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>, matttel...@sprynet.com
says...
On Jul 10, 3:16 am, "CB" <C...@PrayForMe.com> wrote:
U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq
A Huge Stockpile Of Natural Uranium Arrives In Canada After Secret
U.S.
Operation
Yep, the yellowcake Iraq declared, that the IAEA monitored until they
were kicked out by the US,
and that was sealed.
What's your point?
The point is that the stockpile shows how strong of an interest Saddam
had in yellowcake. That this was all taken from him and sealed away
provided him the motivation to seek more, as the British Intelligence
Agency discovered him doing.
|
Really. And he declared it, as required by the rules. So, again,
what's the problem?
You do know we are in violation of the NPA, don't you? Should we be
invaded?
There 'is' no relative moral equivalence between your worm eaten uncle
Saddamn and American policy.
WTF is NPA? This?
http://www.npa-vancouver.com/
Matt |
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CB
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 3:46 am Post subject: Re: U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq - Libs still in |
|
|
<Nicklas@Click.com> wrote in message
news:7icc74l65cas31j8ej3ck7rlkvk32tvnc5@4ax.com...
| Quote: |
On Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:16:05 -0400, "CB"
CB@PrayForMe.com> wrote:
U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq
So, if Saddam had these tons and tons of "yellow
cake"---why would he go out and attempt to buy it from
a country that had none to sell?
|
First admit Saddamn had Yellowcake |
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CB
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 3:49 am Post subject: Re: U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq - Libs still in |
|
|
"Larry Hewitt" <larryhewi@comporium.net> wrote in message
news:kb6dncx9rduRo-vVRVn_vwA@comporium.net...
| Quote: |
Rightards are still trying to insist that Iraq had a nuclear program.
|
Saddamn got thumped because of his 'potential' threat, not because of an
eminent threat as you Leftists allege Bush charged
| Quote: |
Larry
"CB" <CB@PrayForMe.com> wrote in message
news:4875d41d$0$5947$9a6e19ea@unlimited.newshosting.com...
U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq
A Huge Stockpile Of Natural Uranium Arrives In Canada After Secret U.S.
Operation
(AP) The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge
stockpile of concentrated natural uranium reached a Canadian port
Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week
airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
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.
What is now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the
remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about
12 miles (19 kilometers) south of Baghdad - using teams that include
Iraqi experts recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.
"Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq," said a senior
U.S. official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The
Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of
the sensitivity of the subject.
While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called
"dirty bomb" - a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive
material - it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast.
Yellowcake also can be enriched for use in reactors and, at higher
levels, nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment.
The Iraqi government sold the yellowcake to a Canadian uranium producer,
Cameco Corp., in a transaction the official described as worth "tens of
millions of dollars." A Cameco spokesman, Lyle Krahn, declined to discuss
the price, but said the yellowcake will be processed at facilities in
Ontario for use in energy-producing reactors.
"We are pleased ... that we have taken (the yellowcake) from a volatile
region into a stable area to produce clean electricity," he said.
The deal culminated more than a year of intense diplomatic and military
initiatives - kept hushed in fear of ambushes or attacks once the convoys
were under way: first carrying 3,500 barrels by road to Baghdad, then on
37 military flights to the Indian Ocean atoll of Diego Garcia and finally
aboard a U.S.-flagged ship for a 8,500-mile trip to Montreal.
And, in a symbolic way, the mission linked the current attempts to
stabilize Iraq with some of the high-profile claims about Saddam's
weapons capabilities in the buildup to the 2003 invasion.
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.
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.
U.S. and Iraqi forces have guarded the 23,000-acre (9,300-hectare) site -
surrounded by huge sand berms - following a wave of looting after
Saddam's fall that included villagers toting away yellowcake storage
barrels for use as drinking water cisterns.
Yellowcake is obtained by using various solutions to leach out uranium
from raw ore and can have a corn meal-like color and consistency. It
poses no severe risk if stored and sealed properly. But exposure carries
well-documented health concerns associated with heavy metals such as
damage to internal organs, experts say.
"The big problem comes with any inhalation of any of the yellowcake
dust," said Doug Brugge, a professor of public health issues at the Tufts
University School of Medicine.
Moving the yellowcake faced numerous hurdles.
Diplomats and military leaders first weighed the idea of shipping the
yellowcake overland to Kuwait's port on the Persian Gulf. Such a route,
however, would pass through Iraq's Shiite heartland and within easy range
of extremist factions, including some that Washington claims are aided by
Iran. The ship also would need to clear the narrow Strait of Hormuz at
the mouth of the Gulf, where U.S. and Iranian ships often come in close
contact.
Kuwaiti authorities, too, were reluctant to open their borders to the
shipment despite top-level lobbying from Washington.
An alternative plan took shape: shipping out the yellowcake on cargo
planes.
But the yellowcake still needed a final destination. Iraqi government
officials sought buyers on the commercial market, where uranium prices
spiked at about $120 per pound last year. It's currently selling for
about half that. The Cameco deal was reached earlier this year, the
official said.
At that point, U.S.-led crews began removing the yellowcake from the
Saddam-era containers - some leaking or weakened by corrosion - and
reloading the material into about 3,500 secure barrels.
In April, truck convoys started moving the yellowcake from Tuwaitha to
Baghdad's international airport, the official said. Then, for two weeks
in May, it was ferried in 37 flights to Diego Garcia, a speck of British
territory in the Indian Ocean where the U.S. military maintains a base.
On June 3, an American ship left the island for Montreal, said the
official, who declined to give further details about the operation.
The yellowcake wasn't the only dangerous item removed from Tuwaitha.
Earlier this year, the military withdrew four devices for controlled
radiation exposure from the former nuclear complex. The lead-enclosed
irradiation units, used to decontaminate food and other items, contain
elements of high radioactivity that could potentially be used in a
weapon, according to the official. Their Ottawa-based manufacturer, MDS
Nordion, took them back for free, the official said.
The yellowcake was the last major stockpile from Saddam's nuclear
efforts, but years of final cleanup is ahead for Tuwaitha and other
smaller sites.
The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency plans to offer technical
expertise.
Last month, a team of Iraqi nuclear experts completed training in the
Ukrainian ghost town of Pripyat, which once housed the Chernobyl workers
before the deadly meltdown in 1986, said an IAEA official who spoke on
condition of anonymity because the decontamination plan has not yet been
publicly announced.
But the job ahead is enormous, complicated by digging out radioactive
"hot zones" entombed in concrete during Saddam's rule, said the IAEA
official. Last year, an IAEA safety expert, Dennis Reisenweaver,
predicted the cleanup could take "many years."
The yellowcake issue also is one of the many troubling footnotes of the
war for Washington.
A CIA officer, Valerie Plame, claimed her identity was leaked to
journalists to retaliate against her husband, former Ambassador Joe
Wilson, who wrote that he had found no evidence to support assertions
that Iraq tried to buy additional yellowcake from Niger.
A federal investigation led to the conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter"
Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, on charges of perjury
and obstruction of justice.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/05/world/main4235028.shtml?source=search_story
--
CB
Fair Use Notice:
This material is made available in an effort to advance understanding of
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and
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Larry Hewitt
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 5:53 am Post subject: Re: U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq - Libs still in |
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"CB" <CB@PrayForMe.com> wrote in message
news:4876922c$0$12041$9a6e19ea@unlimited.newshosting.com...
| Quote: |
Nicklas@Click.com> wrote in message
news:7icc74l65cas31j8ej3ck7rlkvk32tvnc5@4ax.com...
On Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:16:05 -0400, "CB"
CB@PrayForMe.com> wrote:
U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq
So, if Saddam had these tons and tons of "yellow
cake"---why would he go out and attempt to buy it from
a country that had none to sell?
First admit Saddamn had Yellowcake
|
Idiot, it was well known that Iraq had tons of yellowcake.
Per his treaty obligations and UN mandates he reported it and the IAEA put
untampered seals ( a least until we invaded and the bunkers were left
unguarded) on the storage bunkers.
So what?
Do you actually know what yellowcake is?
Larry |
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Larry Hewitt
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 5:59 am Post subject: Re: U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq - Libs still in |
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"CB" <CB@PrayForMe.com> wrote in message
news:487692d0$0$11997$9a6e19ea@unlimited.newshosting.com...
| Quote: |
"Larry Hewitt" <larryhewi@comporium.net> wrote in message
news:kb6dncx9rduRo-vVRVn_vwA@comporium.net...
Rightards are still trying to insist that Iraq had a nuclear program.
Saddamn got thumped because of his 'potential' threat, not because of an
eminent threat as you Leftists allege Bush charged
|
This divination dreck again.
$6 trillion, tens of thousands od US dwad and maimed, loss of stature in the
world, ruination of the army, national guard, and marines. escalating oil
proces and shortages ( you do know how much oil the conflict is burning?).
adnd the creation of thousands of terrorist for something that _might_
happen? Soemthing that has been proven to have been impossible?
Larry
| Quote: |
Larry
"CB" <CB@PrayForMe.com> wrote in message
news:4875d41d$0$5947$9a6e19ea@unlimited.newshosting.com...
U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq
A Huge Stockpile Of Natural Uranium Arrives In Canada After Secret U.S.
Operation
(AP) The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge
stockpile of concentrated natural uranium reached a Canadian port
Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week
airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.
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.
What is now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the
remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex
about 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of Baghdad - using teams that
include Iraqi experts recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in
Ukraine.
"Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq," said a senior
U.S. official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The
Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because
of the sensitivity of the subject.
While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called
"dirty bomb" - a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive
material - it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast.
Yellowcake also can be enriched for use in reactors and, at higher
levels, nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment.
The Iraqi government sold the yellowcake to a Canadian uranium producer,
Cameco Corp., in a transaction the official described as worth "tens of
millions of dollars." A Cameco spokesman, Lyle Krahn, declined to
discuss the price, but said the yellowcake will be processed at
facilities in Ontario for use in energy-producing reactors.
"We are pleased ... that we have taken (the yellowcake) from a volatile
region into a stable area to produce clean electricity," he said.
The deal culminated more than a year of intense diplomatic and military
initiatives - kept hushed in fear of ambushes or attacks once the
convoys were under way: first carrying 3,500 barrels by road to Baghdad,
then on 37 military flights to the Indian Ocean atoll of Diego Garcia
and finally aboard a U.S.-flagged ship for a 8,500-mile trip to
Montreal.
And, in a symbolic way, the mission linked the current attempts to
stabilize Iraq with some of the high-profile claims about Saddam's
weapons capabilities in the buildup to the 2003 invasion.
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.
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.
U.S. and Iraqi forces have guarded the 23,000-acre (9,300-hectare)
site - surrounded by huge sand berms - following a wave of looting after
Saddam's fall that included villagers toting away yellowcake storage
barrels for use as drinking water cisterns.
Yellowcake is obtained by using various solutions to leach out uranium
from raw ore and can have a corn meal-like color and consistency. It
poses no severe risk if stored and sealed properly. But exposure carries
well-documented health concerns associated with heavy metals such as
damage to internal organs, experts say.
"The big problem comes with any inhalation of any of the yellowcake
dust," said Doug Brugge, a professor of public health issues at the
Tufts University School of Medicine.
Moving the yellowcake faced numerous hurdles.
Diplomats and military leaders first weighed the idea of shipping the
yellowcake overland to Kuwait's port on the Persian Gulf. Such a route,
however, would pass through Iraq's Shiite heartland and within easy
range of extremist factions, including some that Washington claims are
aided by Iran. The ship also would need to clear the narrow Strait of
Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, where U.S. and Iranian ships often come
in close contact.
Kuwaiti authorities, too, were reluctant to open their borders to the
shipment despite top-level lobbying from Washington.
An alternative plan took shape: shipping out the yellowcake on cargo
planes.
But the yellowcake still needed a final destination. Iraqi government
officials sought buyers on the commercial market, where uranium prices
spiked at about $120 per pound last year. It's currently selling for
about half that. The Cameco deal was reached earlier this year, the
official said.
At that point, U.S.-led crews began removing the yellowcake from the
Saddam-era containers - some leaking or weakened by corrosion - and
reloading the material into about 3,500 secure barrels.
In April, truck convoys started moving the yellowcake from Tuwaitha to
Baghdad's international airport, the official said. Then, for two weeks
in May, it was ferried in 37 flights to Diego Garcia, a speck of British
territory in the Indian Ocean where the U.S. military maintains a base.
On June 3, an American ship left the island for Montreal, said the
official, who declined to give further details about the operation.
The yellowcake wasn't the only dangerous item removed from Tuwaitha.
Earlier this year, the military withdrew four devices for controlled
radiation exposure from the former nuclear complex. The lead-enclosed
irradiation units, used to decontaminate food and other items, contain
elements of high radioactivity that could potentially be used in a
weapon, according to the official. Their Ottawa-based manufacturer, MDS
Nordion, took them back for free, the official said.
The yellowcake was the last major stockpile from Saddam's nuclear
efforts, but years of final cleanup is ahead for Tuwaitha and other
smaller sites.
The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency plans to offer technical
expertise.
Last month, a team of Iraqi nuclear experts completed training in the
Ukrainian ghost town of Pripyat, which once housed the Chernobyl workers
before the deadly meltdown in 1986, said an IAEA official who spoke on
condition of anonymity because the decontamination plan has not yet been
publicly announced.
But the job ahead is enormous, complicated by digging out radioactive
"hot zones" entombed in concrete during Saddam's rule, said the IAEA
official. Last year, an IAEA safety expert, Dennis Reisenweaver,
predicted the cleanup could take "many years."
The yellowcake issue also is one of the many troubling footnotes of the
war for Washington.
A CIA officer, Valerie Plame, claimed her identity was leaked to
journalists to retaliate against her husband, former Ambassador Joe
Wilson, who wrote that he had found no evidence to support assertions
that Iraq tried to buy additional yellowcake from Niger.
A federal investigation led to the conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter"
Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, on charges of
perjury and obstruction of justice.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/07/05/world/main4235028.shtml?source=search_story
--
CB
Fair Use Notice:
This material is made available in an effort to advance understanding of
environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific,
and
social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such
copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law.
For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
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CB
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:06 am Post subject: Re: U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq - Libs still in |
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I ain't walking to you Wewie
"Larry Hewitt" <larryhewi@comporium.net> wrote in message
news:Fe2dnURXwN6HMuvV4p2dnAA@comporium.net...
| Quote: |
"CB" <CB@PrayForMe.com> wrote in message
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CB
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:06 am Post subject: Re: U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq - Libs still in |
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"Larry Hewitt" <larryhewi@comporium.net> wrote in message
news:HbWdnf_I8rLGLevVRVn_vwA@comporium.net...
| Quote: |
"CB" <CB@PrayForMe.com> wrote in message
news:487692d0$0$11997$9a6e19ea@unlimited.newshosting.com...
"Larry Hewitt" <larryhewi@comporium.net> wrote in message
news:kb6dncx9rduRo-vVRVn_vwA@comporium.net...
Rightards are still trying to insist that Iraq had a nuclear program.
Saddamn got thumped because of his 'potential' threat, not because of an
eminent threat as you Leftists allege Bush charged
This divination dreck again.
$6 trillion, tens of thousands od US dwad and maimed, loss of stature in
the world, ruination of the army, national guard, and marines. escalating
oil proces and shortages ( you do know how much oil the conflict is
burning?). adnd the creation of thousands of terrorist for something that
_might_ happen? Soemthing that has been proven to have been impossible?
Larry
|
Don't mess with the USA! You'll get thumped |
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Matt
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:56 pm Post subject: Re: U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq - Libs still in |
|
|
On Jul 10, 4:45 pm, "CB" <C...@PrayForMe.com> wrote:
| Quote: |
"Matt" <matttel...@sprynet.com> wrote in message
news:9ab2356d-7767-453c-baed-696ea7927e93@34g2000hsh.googlegroups.com...
On Jul 10, 12:11 pm, John Black <jbl...@texas.net> wrote:
In article <e35189a9-c139-4076-a7ad-
f0624936b...@z72g2000hsb.googlegroups.com>, matttel...@sprynet.com
says...
On Jul 10, 3:16 am, "CB" <C...@PrayForMe.com> wrote:
U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq
A Huge Stockpile Of Natural Uranium Arrives In Canada After Secret
U.S.
Operation
Yep, the yellowcake Iraq declared, that the IAEA monitored until they
were kicked out by the US,
and that was sealed.
What's your point?
The point is that the stockpile shows how strong of an interest Saddam
had in yellowcake. That this was all taken from him and sealed away
provided him the motivation to seek more, as the British Intelligence
Agency discovered him doing.
Really. And he declared it, as required by the rules. So, again,
what's the problem?
You do know we are in violation of the NPA, don't you? Should we be
invaded?
There 'is' no relative moral equivalence between your worm eaten uncle
Saddamn and American policy.
|
If you say so.
| Quote: |
WTF is NPA? This?http://www.npa-vancouver.com/
|
Sorry, I meant NPT (Non Proliferation Treaty). I mistyped.
Matt |
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CB
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| Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2008 4:21 pm Post subject: Meanwhile, while the uranium was pre-1991 Gulf War vintage a |
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Do the World a favour, kill a Conservative <rander3...@gmail.com> wrote:
Meanwhile, while the uranium was pre-1991 Gulf War vintage and was known
about since then because it was under the care of the IAEE, the gullible
right was telling themselves that Saddam was targeting American cities with
his arsenal of ICBMs and had attacked the WTC on 9/11.
Bush was calling orange alerts on US soil every time another embarrassing
revelation about his administration appeared in the media and the right wing
sheep were dutifully buying shrink wrap and duct tape to protect themselves.
Proof that conservatives are the stupidest, most gullible brainless fucking
sheep on the planet. It's a mental illness driven by low intelligence.
Those who tell lies or are racist are to be executed by God! |
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