U.N. agency: Nuclear materials vanish in Iraq

 

 

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Equipment and materials that could be used to make nuclear weapons have disappeared from Iraq, warns the chief of the atomic watchdog agency for the United Nations.

 

Satellite imagery shows buildings that once housed high-precision equipment that could be used to make nuclear bombs have been dismantled, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a letter to the U.N. Security Council.

 

In the letter, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said that though some radioactive equipment taken from Iraq after the war's start has shown up in other countries, none of the missing high-quality, dual-use equipment or materials has been found.

 

The American government prevented U.N. weapons inspectors from returning to Iraq -- thereby blocking the IAEA from monitoring the high-tech equipment and materials -- after the U.S.-led war was launched in March 2003.

 

"The kind of equipment we're talking about ... is the sort of thing that has a multitude of industrial applications," said IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky in a phone interview from the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

 

"We were satisfied when we were in Iraq that it was not being used for a nuclear weapons program. In the wrong hands, it could be turned to the use in a nuclear weapons program. Until we establish that this material is in responsible hands, we have to treat it as a serious proliferation concern."

 

IAEA monitors left Iraq shortly before the U.S. invasion. Since then, the Bush administration turned down IAEA offers to return, while the United Nations has been hesitant to put any of its staff into a dangerous Iraq.

 

IAEA inspectors traveled to Iraq in August for the agency's twice-yearly physical inventory of nuclear material, which consists mostly of yellow cake (enriched uranium), a spokeswoman said.

 

Except for an amount the United States notified the agency it was removing, the IAEA verified that the yellow cake remaining in Iraq was the same as before the war.

 

However, the equipment is another matter. Under a mandate from the United Nations, Iraq is obliged to notify the IAEA if at any time it moves any of the equipment in question.

 

"We've not received any such notification since the war," Gwozdecky said. "Until we learn from either Iraq or any country that might have received or have knowledge about where this material went, we have a concern on our hands."

 

Last week's release of the CIA report by chief U.S. weapons inspector Charles Duelfer showed that some equipment could have been taken during the chaos and looting that followed the invasion, Gwozdecky said.

 

"But from our satellite photos, we've seen evidence that some of the facilities we used to monitor closely have been dismantled completely," he said, indicating that it happened over a longer period of time with more forethought. "We need to answer the question, 'Where did this material go?' "

 

Since March 2003, the nuclear agency has had to rely on satellite imagery to work out what is happening with Iraq's nuclear sites.

 

In his letter, ElBaradei added that "as the disappearance of such equipment and materials may be of proliferation significance, any state that has information about the location of such items should provide IAEA with that information."

 

A spokesman for the U.S. Mission in New York said he had not seen ElBaradei's letter.

 

In the first presidential debate, President Bush and Sen. John Kerry agreed that nuclear proliferation is the single most serious threat facing the United States.

 

Bush has justified the war in Iraq in part by saying that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was on the brink of developing a nuclear bomb that he might use against the United States or give to terrorists.

 

But the Duelfer report concluded that Hussein terminated his nuclear program after the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

 

Anyone else think it funny that that UN couldn't find their arse with both hands for 12 years in Iraq, but now all of a sudden they've trained an eagle eye on every single piece of inventory Iraq has?

Laughable. The UN is freakin' laughable.

Whats funny is that people dont realize even though we didnt find "stockpiles" of WMDs, doesnt mean there wasnt a threat. Saddam isnt a stupid man, infact Saddam is a brilliant man, he is a genius, you dont get to be in his position with out being a genius. He is psychotic, but still a genius. He knew that the US was planning an invasion to take his sorry ass out of office, so he dismantles his WMD projects. UN inspectors dont find hardcore evidence of WMDs. At the same time he knows that when they turn their backs that all he has to do is turn on his cog machine and in no time he is making WMDs. Basically what it boils down to, is that Saddam is and was a shady character, one that could not be trusted. He needed to be taken out, and a free regime with elections is what was needed to start some stability in the Middle East. Give it 10 - 15 years and what W did in taking that SOB out will be glorified and cheered upon as one of the greatest accomplishments of this era.