News and Document archive source
copyrighted material disclaimer at bottom of page

NewsMinewar-on-terroriraqpretextwmd — Viewing Item


Children play with uranium tubes

Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
   http://www.msnbc.com/news/912073.asp?0cv=KB10

http://www.msnbc.com/news/912073.asp?0cv=KB10

WMDs for the Taking?
By Rod Nordland, Newsweek

May 19 issue — From the very start, one of the top U.S. priorities in Iraq has been the search for weapons of mass destruction. Weren't WMDs supposed to be what the war was about? Even so, no one has yet produced conclusive evidence that Iraq was maintaining a nuclear, biological or chemical (NBC) arsenal.

TWO VERY SUSPICIOUS trailer rigs turned up last week in Mosul. The Pentagon called them mobile bio-labs. Maybe, but although they "looked like a duck and walked like a duck," as one U.S. officer put it, they didn't quack. The first of the huge, truck-drawn labs, intercepted at a roadblock, had been swabbed clean. The other, discovered Friday, was stripped by looters before U.S. troops found it. So far there's a lot more belli than casus.
Looters outran the WMD hunters almost every time. "Once a site has been hit with a 2,000-pound bomb, then looted, there's not a lot left," says Maj. Paul Haldeman, the 101st Airborne Division's top NBC officer. In the rush to Baghdad, Coalition forces raced past most suspected WMD sites, and looters took over. After Saddam's fall, there were too few U.S. troops to secure the facilities. Roughly 900 possible WMD sites appeared on the initial target lists. So far, V Corps officers say, fewer than 150 have been searched. "There aren't enough troops in the whole Army," says Col. Tim Madere, the overseer of V Corps's sensitive-site teams. "There just aren't enough experts to do everything."

'THIS SITE IS OUT OF CONTROL'
Some of the lapses are frightening. The well-known Al Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center, about 12 miles south of Baghdad, had nearly two tons of partially enriched uranium, along with significant quantities of highly radioactive medical and industrial isotopes, when International Atomic Energy Agency officials made their last visit in January. By the time U.S. troops arrived in early April, armed guards were holding off looters--but the Americans only disarmed the guards, Al Tuwaitha department heads told NEWSWEEK. "We told them, 'This site is out of control. You have to take care of it'," says Munther Ibrahim, Al Tuwaitha's head of plasma physics. "The soldiers said, 'We are a small group. We cannot take control of this site'." As soon as the Americans left, looters broke in. The staff fled; when they returned, the containment vaults' seals had been broken, and radioactive material was everywhere.

U.S. officers say the center had already been ransacked before their troops arrived. They didn't try to stop the looting, says Colonel Madere, because "there was no directive that said do not allow anyone in and out of this place." Last week American troops finally went back to secure the site. Al Tuwaitha's scientists still can't fully assess the damage; some areas are too badly contaminated to inspect. "I saw empty uranium-oxide barrels lying around, and children playing with them," says Fadil Mohsen Abed, head of the medical-isotopes department. Stainless-steel uranium canisters had been stolen. Some were later found in local markets and in villagers' homes. "We saw people using them for milking cows and carrying drinking water," says Ibrahim. The looted materials could not make a nuclear bomb, but IAEA officials worry that terrorists could build plenty of dirty bombs with some of the isotopes that may have gone missing. Last week NEWSWEEK visited a total of eight sites on U.N. weapons-inspection lists. Two were guarded by U.S. troops. Armed looters were swarming through two others. Another was evidently destroyed many years ago. American forces had not yet searched the remaining three.

Not finding WMDs doesn't mean there are none. "We haven't found Saddam Hussein yet," says a senior Bush administration official. "Does that mean he didn't exist?" Last week the ground-forces commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. David McKiernan, told NEWSWEEK he's confident evidence will emerge. "We haven't found yet the big, hard evidence, but I think that will come," he said. Officials in Washington spoke more cautiously. "I think we're going to find that they had a weapons-of-mass-destruction program," said Stephen Cambone, under secretary of Defense for intelligence--carefully not saying the weapons themselves would be found. Proving Saddam's guilt is almost beside the point. The urgent job now is to keep his WMD materials out of terrorist hands--if it isn't already too late.

With Kevin Peraino in Baghdad, Owen Matthews in Mosul, Mark Hosenball in Vienna and Richard Wolffe and Tamara Lipper in Washington

© 2003 Newsweek, Inc.

MSNBC Terms, Conditions and Privacy ©2003



tubes
uranium
weapons-declaration
Blair admits weapons may never be found { January 12 2004 }
Blair admits wmds may never be found { July 6 2004 }
Blair decided regime change april 2002 despite rhetoric { May 2 2005 }
Blix accuses fabricating evidence { April 12 2003 }
Blix report doubts wmd { June 2 2003 }
British doctored wmd dossier { May 29 2003 }
Bush declines to back call for intelligence probe
Bush jokes about finding wmds
Bush says war worth it despite no wmds
Bush says weapons will be found
Chemical weapons plant created after invasion { August 14 2005 }
Children play with uranium tubes
Cia condemned for flawed intelligence
Cia operative asked to falsify wmd report { December 9 2004 }
Classified study doubts weapons in 2002
Documents concerning uranium came from italy { October 25 2005 }
Fbi says profit motivated italian uranium forgery
Germ trailer evidence rejected { June 7 2003 }
GWB_WMD_Memo [pdf]
Inspector reports iraq had no WMD
Iraq declared al samoud missiles { April 29 2003 }
Iraq destroyed wmd 1995
Iraq may have destroyed wmd { May 27 2003 }
Kay blames cia for no wmd
Kurds help find wmd lab { May 7 2003 }
Mccain picked for iraq intelligence probe
Might have to be planted
New inspections to plant weapons { April 8 2003 }
New reports on us planting wmds in iraq
No firm evidence banned weapons { April 7 2003 }
No reliable evidence of iraqi weapons { June 6 2003 }
No reliable information wmd { June 6 2003 }
No weapons found in iraq says report
No wmd found but { February 14 2003 }
No wmds found in iraq { September 24 2003 }
Nuclear program materials still buried { June 26 2003 }
Officer refused falsify wmd reports
Panel assails CIA for failure on iraq weapons { March 29 2005 }
Powell says new data may have affected war decision { February 3 2004 }
Powell says wmd stocks wont be found
Powell says wmd un speech blot on record
Presidential report is critical of intelligence agencies
Questions on blair intelligence { April 21 2003 }
Report says intel on wmd was dead wrong { March 31 2005 }
Rockefeller says weapons should been found { May 29 2003 }
Saddam had no weapons in 2003 { October 6 2004 }
Saddam says wmd excuse for war
Scientist says arms kept till war { April 21 2003 }
Scientist surrenders says no wmd
Search for wmds in iraq ended last month { January 12 2005 }
Sen Durbin jan 26 06 on iraq wmds [mp3]
Sen Durbin jan 26 06 on iraq wmds
Senate panel blames bad iraq intelligence on CIA
Senators told iraqi weapons could hit east coast
Seniors sources ruled out finding wmds { July 10 2003 }
Skepticism on bushs weapons claims grow { May 22 2003 }
Smoking gun wmd site just pesticide
Task force unable find wmd { May 11 2003 }
Team hunting iraq WMD ends its search { January 12 2005 }
Test barrels nerve agent
Us adds teams hunt { April 27 2003 }
Us not inspected iraq nuclear facility { April 25 2003 }
US team concludes saddam had no wmd { April 26 2005 }
Us withdraws team of weapons hunters { January 8 2004 }
Usa and uk lied war pretext
Usa will falsify wmd
Weapons hunter quits says doubts they exist
Wmd intelligence was falisified { February 15 2004 }
Wmd proof [jpg]

Files Listed: 69



Correction/submissions

CIA FOIA Archive

National Security
Archives
Support one-state solution for Israel and Palestine Tea Party bumper stickers JFK for Dummies, The Assassination made simple