Article by former Iraqi nuclear scientist

[Vympel]

There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. This apparently became the case a few months after the end of the 1991 war when Hussain Kamel, the man in charge of the nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs, ordered the destruction of the chemical and biological materials and their warheads. The nuclear weapons program had already come to a halt on the first night of bombing in January 1991. The weapons were destroyed secretly, in order to hide their existence from inspectors, in the hopes of someday resuming production after inspections had finished. Hussain Kamel even disclosed the location of the hidden documents relating to the remnants of the chemical and biological programs during his futile escape to Jordan in 1995.

Yet Bush, Blair and their senior cohorts kept brandishing their "intelligence sources" in order to whip up a fervor over the danger of Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction up until the last day before the invasion of Iraq. Once they were in Iraq, with their hundreds of "specialists," they promised to uncover the hidden weapons of mass destruction.

One such idiotic attempt was the intrusion of American soldiers in the often-bombed Nuclear Research Center. The soldiers broke the protective seals originally placed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and opened Tuwaitha's radioactive burial mound; instead, they could have easily contacted the IAEA for an inventory of the tons of natural "yellow cake" and radioactive liquid and solid waste found.

The U.S. Central Command finally allowed the Pentagon's Direct Support Team to survey the nuclear sites a week after the capture of Baghdad. When they finally reached the sites, the Pentagon's team unfortunately found them looted, raising the specter that materials for a nuclear "dirty bomb" could now fall into the hands of terrorists. The IAEA has been desperate to visit the sites and has warned the U.S. since April 11 of the possibility of radioactive contamination, but Washington has consistently refused to allow the IAEA inspectors in. Even recently, Rumsfeld had the criminal gall to suggest that the IAEA may return only if the U.N. agrees to the American conditions of carrying out its occupation of Iraq. This while tens of women and children are already exhibiting cases of radiation sickness.

[Vympel aside: heard on BBC that barrels once holding radioactive material were being used for milking animals and collecting water]

In addition to the non-existent nuclear weapons program, the 1995 interview with Hussain Kamel, which was suppressed for eight years, and the final declarations of Amer al-Saadi, the senior Iraqi scientific advisor, before surrendering to the American forces in mid-April 2003, have both alleged the destruction of all chemical and biological weapons and their warheads soon after the end of the 1991 war. These claims are holding true due to recent non-findings.

America's threadbare credibility on Iraq's WMD is stretched to the limit. Ari Fleischer declared on April 10, in the heat of the invasion, "That is what this war was about." Now Donald Rumsfeld is saying something to the effect that they are invading another country to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction, but he doubts whether they will find them unless people there tell the invaders where they are. Whatever happened to America's "intelligence" that was constantly touted as justification to attack Iraq?

To further underscore their utter intelligence failure, the Americans are now offering a $200,000 reward to any "noble Iraqi," as broadcasted on the radio, for providing information that may lead to the discovery of Iraqi WMD, their locations and even the Iraqi scientists who participated in WMD programs. Were not these the same Iraqi scientists who were being chastised by the Americans, for cowering in fear from their government, for not coming forth when UNMOVIC and the IAEA inspectors were on the ground in Iraq last winter? What is stopping these scientists now from coming out to collect this reward, perhaps to be hand delivered by the same Iraqi defectors who were already paid similar amounts for spreading these lies during the past few years and who marched behind the American tanks during the invasion of Iraq?

What other reasons may there be but the simple stark fact that no scientists had worked on such programs for the past 12 years, after all material evidence had been destroyed either during the 1991 war or a few months afterwards. What prevents these lying defectors, some of whom are now in Iraq to take up their new job "posts," from pointing out where these weapons are? Did not Khidhir Hamza claim, throughout the late nineties and up to March 2003, that Iraq was within a few years of producing several nuclear weapons? His silence should speak volumes, especially to CNN, FOX and the Congressional Committees in Washington who trumpeted or were swayed by his deceit.

A most damning report by James Risen in the New York Times on May 22, 2003 titled "Prewar views of Iraq threat are under review by C.I.A." blithely reported that "'Rumsfeld and Tenet regularly have lunch,' one senior administration official said. 'And last fall, they were having a conversation, and Rumsfeld said: 'If we go to war with Iraq, what are the things we should look at?' They agreed that we would have an opportunity to learn a lot about our intelligence, and how it stacks up against reality,' he continued."

A more daunting, callous explanation was offered in the same article by "A senior intelligence official [who] cautioned that the review was not designed as a formal investigation or a 'witch hunt,' but rather as an intellectual exercise to find ways to improve the way the intelligence community works." This was, indeed, a criminal exercise.

Bush, Blair and their senior officials have, in essence, lied to their people and waged a war criminal invasion in lieu of this unintelligent "intelligence." Is this the democracy model for a "liberated" Iraq?

Tragically, the invasion of Iraq has thrust the Iraqi people into a state of free fall. The despotic lid of Saddam was uncovered but the hole is deep and unpredictable.

The centers of power in central and southern Iraq, the ministries, banks, courts, hospitals, schools, import/export structures, and decision centers are mostly demolished. Daily living conditions, on top of a very serious lack of law and order, are the lack of electricity, water, medicine, petrol, and salaries. Inflation is galloping at an exponential rate. With no salaries being paid to millions of civil servants for over a month now, thousands of families have been reduced to destitute levels in masse, fuelling further lawlessness.

The Americans have only proved that they excel in mobilizing armed forces and in dropping missiles and bombs, but not how to prevent a society from disintegrating. American intelligence is so flawed that it is pathetic. In addition to their delusions about weapons of mass destruction, Bush and his neo-conservatives are nothing but war robots and see the world only through U.S. goggles. Preventing a society from disintegrating is not in the agenda or the thinking of these neo-conservatives. The Americans and the British have, in a sense, raped Iraq and left it bleeding. There they stand, with their pants down, licking their lips, just waiting to manipulate the oil industry.

A month and a half after the end of hostilities, the invaders have finally submitted a U.N. resolution admitting that they are occupiers. They should only expect what occupiers deserve.

[Imad Khadduri has a MSc in Physics from the University of Michigan (United States) and a PhD in Nuclear Reactor Technology from the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom). Khadduri worked with the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission from 1968 until 1998. He was able to leave Iraq in late 1998 with his family. He now teaches and works as a network administrator in Toronto, Canada. He has been interviewed by the United Nations, the International Atomic Energy Agency, FOX, the Toronto Star, Reuters, and various other news agencies in regards to his knowledge of the Iraqi nuclear program. This article was originally printed in YellowTimes.org.]

Original source

[Crayz9000]

Wonderful...

I guess we can say that this was the shortest faux pas in military history. Well, sort of.

[Vympel]

Wonderful...

I guess we can say that this was the shortest faux pas in military history. Well, sort of.

The most outrageous thing is that the interview with Hussein Kamel was suppressed for so long. Everything that the former inspectors have said (one smeared Scott Ritter, for one), that the scientists have insisted, that is borne out by the reality on the ground now, it all fits.

On the other hand, the last few diehards claim that this country "the size of California" could hide such weapons anywhere they wanted, this despite the fact that UN inspectors recieved instructions from US intelligence about where to look in the last round of inspections. The inspectors response? It was absolute garbage.

[SyntaxVorlon]

Not suprising in the least. The Shrubbery in Thief wanted a war not an inspection. He needed a success full war to try and bolster his non-existant mandate, and make the War on Terror look like it was working. So he attacked an old enemy, tried to convince the American public that Iraq attacked the WTC, and tried to make them comply with further and further demands for disarmament.
I'd say Saddam was moving towards simple local dominance rather than another unsuccessful assault on Isreal or the US oil interests.

Let's hope at least that the democrats can force the focus of the American public back onto the 100 billion dollar deficit, the rising national and trade deficits, the fact that bush is pushing or pushed a 350 billion dollar tax cut. And that he spent 100 billion dollars on an unprovoked, unjustified war, and created an international precident which India and Pakistan can use to justify to blow the shit out of eachother with nuclear weapons. And that Afganistan is starting to sway back toward dictatorial control. So much more stuff, ugh... I can't go on this is starting to make me dizzy.

[Joe]

Let's hope at least that the democrats can force the focus of the American public back onto the 100 billion dollar deficit, the rising national and trade deficits, the fact that bush is pushing or pushed a 350 billion dollar tax cut.

Right, like they did in 1992? The American public is not in a million years going to buy the Democrats suddenly taking up the mantle of fiscal responsibility simply as long as they aren't the ones deficit spending.

[Crayz9000]

If there was a surefire way to ensure that no more pork-barrel items get tacked onto legislature, then I'd certainly vote for it. All the US government has to do to (mostly) get rid of the deficit is to slash the pork, which unfortunately our Congress and Senate would not like.

[Joe]

If there was a surefire way to ensure that no more pork-barrel items get tacked onto legislature, then I'd certainly vote for it. All the US government has to do to (mostly) get rid of the deficit is to slash the pork, which unfortunately our Congress and Senate would not like.

If you want big government, you're going to have pork. It's inevitable.

[Crayz9000]

Well, I don't happen to be in favor of an overly big government.

So yeah, smaller governtment = less pork.

[Joe]

Sorry, didn't mean to isinuate anything. Wow, I really have veered this thread off course.

[EmperorChrostas the Cruel]

This is directly contradicted by the dear Dr. Khidhir Hamza, former HEAD of the Iraqi nuclear program, who defected in 1994.

This man could not have known the full extent of the full SET of programs.
That's programS, plural.
In 94, when Hamza defected, he had knowledge of MULTIPLE programs, with different aproaches to the goal of getting the bomb.Also a systematic program of deciet, and conceilment about said programs. Few knew about the TOTALITY of the programS.

Does the term disinformation mean anything to you?
If this Khaddiri doesn't have an ax to grind, he could just simply be WRONG!

I noticed the article was one small paragragh from this man, being used as a springboard to bag on the USA, and it's motives.

[Raptor 597]

Hamza said something along the lines of materials not arriving being very late. In most recent interview on the History Channel he'd said most projects would not be done now and for some time.

[Raptor 597]

Perhaps they wre in missions where the attack was canceled or they'd by gunned down before reaching the objective.

[Raptor 597]

Whoopse. Wrong window. Please delete my immediately above post, Wrong thread. Thank you.

[Axis Kast]

Let's hope at least that the democrats can force the focus of the American public back onto the 100 billion dollar deficit, the rising national and trade deficits, the fact that bush is pushing or pushed a 350 billion dollar tax cut. And that he spent 100 billion dollars on an unprovoked, unjustified war, and created an international precident which India and Pakistan can use to justify to blow the shit out of eachother with nuclear weapons. And that Afganistan is starting to sway back toward dictatorial control. So much more stuff, ugh... I can't go on this is starting to make me dizzy.

There is no special precedent that this war established. Since when couldn’t India and Pakistan go to war over some contrived issue? Why did they need Washington to create some kind of historical reference on which they could seize? And how exactly will New Delhi justify a nuclear attack on its neighbors under the claim that, “They had nuclear weapons”? Think very logically here. An excuse is only relevant in the eyes of those observing or intervening. India and Pakistan don’t have half the leeway of the United States to move alone without consequences. Not that they would either. Iraq doesn’t change a thing in this regard.

[Vympel]

This is directly contradicted by the dear Dr. Khidhir Hamza, former HEAD of the Iraqi nuclear program, who defected in 1994.

Why don't you check your facts before you repeat bullshit?

What also sticks out like a sore thumb is Hamza's own CV. Did he really head Iraq's nuclear weapons program? In 1999, David Albright and Kevin O'Neill published a report for the Institute for Science and International Security titled "Iraq's Efforts to Acquire Information about Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear-Related Technologies from the United States." In the report, Hamza is listed as "a senior Iraqi nuclear scientist who held several high-level positions in Iraq's pre-Gulf War nuclear weapons program." The question is why did the very institute where Hamza worked not list him as head or director of the Iraqi nuclear weapons program? Does this distinction not carry a weight of its own? And why the reference to pre-Gulf War? Did Albright and O'Neill know that Hamza's role after the Gulf War was negligible? That certainly does not make Hamza "Bombmaker" for Saddam, Winnie the Pooh, or Bozo the Clown.

There have been widespread allegations that Hamza was little more than a mid-level physicist in Iraq. According to the Center for Non-proliferation Studies (CNS) and the CNS Monitoring Proliferation Threats Nuclear Abstract Database, Hamza was definitely not the head of Iraq's nuclear weapons program. From an article available on that database: "documents were faxed to the Times' offices from Greece by a person claiming to be acting on behalf of Dr. Khidhir Abdul Abas Hamza, a physicist known to have worked on electromagnetic enrichment of uranium (EMIS) for Iraq's nuclear weapons program, PC-3." (Nuclear Fuel, 4/24/95, p. 16, by Mark Hibbs)

The article goes on to state "the IAEA confirmed that Hamza worked in Iraq's nuclear program, and the Sunday Times located an article published in the 2/79 issue of Nuovo Cimento, a scientific journal, by "K A A Hamza of the Nuclear Research Center, Tawattha [Tuwaitha], Baghdad."

However, according to Hamza's own CV (available at http://www.isis-online.org/publications ... hamza.html), Hamza was not a part of the Nuclear Research Center at Tuwaitha in 1979. Hamza was Head of the Fuel Division, Theoretical Section at the Iraqi Atomic Agency between 1975 and 1980. In the publications section of the CV, no mention is made of the above article in Nuovo Cimento.

Isn't it peculiar that the IAEA, a much-lauded nuclear watchdog among other things, did not recognize that Hamza was head of Iraq's nuclear program but rather as someone who worked in the program? Would the IAEA never have met the men during its course of work in Iraq? That's a little hard to fathom.

The answer may lie in Hamza's own bungling. By his own admission in the September/October 1998 issue of Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: "Over the years, I had many roles. I was chief of the fuel division in the 1970s, head of the theoretical division of the enrichment program in the 1980s, scientific adviser to the chairman of the Iraqi Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC) in the mid-1980s, and--for a brief period in 1987--director of weaponization."

"For a brief period." Touching words. A brief period in 1987 and yet the man is touted as the brilliant head of Iraq's nuclear program.

Of course it was a brief period because in 1988, Hamza took charge of Theory and Modeling of the Dense Plasma Focus (DPF) Project and Manager in charge of the Iraqi delegation to Poland.

Despite the discrepancy in his CV, the fact that the IAEA never recognized him as head of the nuclear program, and quite amazingly, his own admission that he was the head for a brief period ending in 1988, Hamza is brandished as Iraq's chief bombmaker. In interviews on major news outlets, Hamza is referred to as Iraq's most senior nuclear scientist who miraculously is still alive today to tell the tale.

In 94, when Hamza defected, he had knowledge of MULTIPLE programs, with different aproaches to the goal of getting the bomb.Also a systematic program of deciet, and conceilment about said programs. Few knew about the TOTALITY of the programS.

Does the term disinformation mean anything to you?
If this Khaddiri doesn't have an ax to grind, he could just simply be WRONG!

I noticed the article was one small paragragh from this man, being used as a springboard to bag on the USA, and it's motives.

Oh get real- this bullshit artist has been completely and utterly silent since the war was over. He hasn't given the US any information whatsoever- no WMD have been found. The preponderance of evidnece is clearly AGAINST him.

[Enforcer Talen]

-scratches head- so are they there, or what?

[Vympel]

-scratches head- so are they there, or what?

Based on the evidence as it stands now, no, IMO.

[Illuminatus Primus]

God damn I wish I could show Sean Hannity that article.

That pompous ass pissed me off over this Iraq War.