IAEA dismisses claims on Iraqi nuclear program as groundless

Enlightenment · Post by **Enlightenment** » 2003-03-08 03:28pm

Ottawa — Secret documents detailing attempts by Iraq to buy uranium for nuclear warheads from Niger are forgeries, the UN's nuclear watchdog agency says.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Friday his investigators and independent document examination experts have determined the letters and other written material are "not authentic."

The forgeries were sold to an Italian intelligence agent by a con man some time ago and passed on to French authorities, but the scam was uncovered by the IAEA only recently, according to United Nations sources familiar with the investigation. The documents were turned over to the IAEA several weeks ago.

In fact, the IAEA says, there is no credible evidence that Iraq tried to import uranium ore from the Central African country in violation of UN resolutions.

"Based on thorough analysis, the IAEA has concluded, with the concurrence of outside experts, that these documents, which formed the basis for the reports of these uranium transactions between Iraq and Niger, are, in fact, not authentic," Mr. ElBaradei told the UN Security Council Friday.

"We have also concluded that these specific allegations are unfounded," he said.

Mr. ElBaradei also said there is no reason to believe Iraq has been able to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program.

IAEA inspectors have found "no indication of nuclear-related prohibited activities at any inspected site," he said.

His report is yet another blow to U.S. efforts to convince the Security Council that the regime of Saddam Hussein is secretly trying to develop nuclear warheads and other weapons of mass destruction and that it must be disarmed by force.

The forgeries were the work of a con man who simply saw an opportunity to make some money, the sources say.

There is no evidence that the forgeries were part of a dirty tricks operation by the United States or any other government to discredit Iraq, even though U.S. and British officials said the documents supported their case against the Baghdad regime.

A British intelligence report made public last month by Prime Minister Tony Blair's government, supposedly documenting Iraqi efforts to build weapons of mass destruction, later proved to be plagiarized in large part from an academic paper written by a scholar in California.

The forged nuclear documents were a "clever cut-and-paste job" that on the face of it indicate Iraq was trying to buy uranium ore from Niger between 1999 and 2001, one of the sources said.

The agency's investigators interviewed officials in Niger and Iraq and hired independent document examination experts to compare the documents, handwriting and signatures to known authentic documents.

Any attempt to sell uranium ore or other material that could be used to manufacture a nuclear warhead would be a serious violation of UN disarmament orders and could result in economic sanctions being imposed against the offending country.

Niger, a poor country that depends heavily on foreign assistance, was very concerned about the allegations and co-operated fully to clear its reputation.

UN inspectors believe that they uncovered and dismantled the Iraqi nuclear weapons program before their inspections were ended in 1998.

The U.S. government insists that Iraq has tried to revive that program and cites various bits of evidence, such as reports of uranium imports and the purchase of high-strength aluminum tubes and industrial magnets that can be used in uranium enrichment machinery.

Mr. ElBaradei said: "We have to date found no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapons program," despite 218 inspections at 141 sites since monitoring was revived three months ago under a new Security Council resolution.

Extensive investigation of the aluminum tubes in question confirms that they were not suitable for uranium enrichment centrifuges, he said.

And none of the declared magnets could be used to enrich uranium, he added.

Gee, could this be yet another case of Shrubby deciding to invade Iraq and then scrambling to find a justification?

Hamel · Post by **Hamel** » 2003-03-08 05:17pm

I posted an article on this after you did. Understandably, it was locked.

Gogogo

EmperorChrostas the Cruel · Post by **EmperorChrostas the Cruel** » 2003-03-08 08:28pm

This is just more UN BULLSHIT.
Remember, this is the same agentcy that TWICE has declared Iraq to be Nuke Free, UN certified.

Then the defectors come out.

I have confidence in the veracity of ALL UN agencies, in the high negative numbers!

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2003-03-08 09:09pm

Why should I trust anything released by an agency run by El-Baradei? The man is not objective in this case.

Ted · Post by **Ted** » 2003-03-08 11:32pm

Emperor Chrostas the Crue wrote:This is just more UN BULLSHIT.
Remember, this is the same agentcy that TWICE has declared Iraq to be Nuke Free, UN certified.
Then the defectors come out.

You TRUST defectors?

Erwin Rommel · Post by **Erwin Rommel** » 2003-03-08 11:34pm

Just for a little extra info on Sadam!

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=31342[/url]

Erwin Rommel · Post by **Erwin Rommel** » 2003-03-08 11:35pm

hmmm...it didn't work, so here goes the full article.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MUCH ABOUT HISTORY
Jews saved Saddam
from abortion
'We weren't talking about killing a dictator but a fetus'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: March 4, 2003
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

An Iraqi Jewish family took in Saddam Hussein's mother in 1937 and talked her out of an abortion, according to Israel's leading expert on Iraq and the large traditional Jewish community that once prospered there.

"The story is true," says Amatzia Baram. "I've pretty much confirmed all of the details, but the family doesn't like to talk about it. There was this fear that people would blame the Jews for Saddam.

The family, originally from Tikrit, Hussein's birthplace, lives in Or Yehuda, home to a large community of Iraqi exiles in Israel, says Baram. The family befriended Hussein's mother while she was pregnant with the future dictator. One of only two Jewish families in Tikrit at the time, they took in the woman and persuaded her not to abort, reports South Florida's Sun-Sentinel.

"After it became public, the family got this angry response from some people saying they should have done something," said Baram. "But it was ridiculous. We weren't talking about killing a dictator but a fetus."

About a decade after the birth of Hussein, Jews across Iraq began a secret exodus of Iraq's increasingly besieged Jewish community to the new state of Israel.

In Operation Ezra and Operation Nehemiah, some 120,400 Jews left Iraq with little more than the clothes on their back for the freedom of the Jewish state. Only 38 Jews are left in Baghdad, according to the most recent count. All told, about 450,000 Iraqi Jews now live in Israel, which has a population of 6.5 million, making them the fourth-largest immigrant group behind Russians, Moroccans and Romanians.

Meanwhile, today, the survivors in Or Yehuda show up every day at the Museum of Babylonian Jewry. The old men and women look at the pictures of the way things were in Iraq. They walk down a replica of a Baghdad street from their youth, and pause at old Torah scrolls smuggled out of the country.

Iraqi Jews were, at one time, part of a privileged elite in Baghdad. They were prosperous landowners, merchants, authors and intellectuals who made up a large percentage of the society's teachers, attorneys and physicians.

Leaving many of their possessions behind, they wound up in horrid camps in the fields that eventually would became Israeli cities such as Or Yehuda and Ramat Gan.

During the early 20th century, the Jewish Quarter of Baghdad numbered about 137,000 people worshiping at dozens of synagogues. Under the Ottoman Turks, who ruled the region until World War I, the Jews of Baghdad were dhimmis, a so-called protected minority, guaranteed freedom of worship but subject to discriminatory taxes and forbidden to own arms.

When the Ottoman Empire fell, relations began to sour as Jewish agitation for a homeland grew stronger.

There were periodic attacks on Jewish neighborhoods and schools, but the turning point came in 1941 in the aftermath of a pro-Nazi coup, when 135 Jews were murdered during a two-day rampage. By the end of 1951, only 9,000 Jews remained in the Iraqi capital.

Next of Kin · Post by **Next of Kin** » 2003-03-08 11:38pm

Emperor Chrostas the Crue wrote:This is just more UN BULLSHIT.
Remember, this is the same agentcy that TWICE has declared Iraq to be Nuke Free, UN certified.
Then the defectors come out.

I have confidence in the veracity of ALL UN agencies, in the high negative numbers!

Proof please.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-03-08 11:41pm

Well, they also told us that North Koreas program was indeed shut down.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-03-09 02:09am

Sea Skimmer wrote:Well, they also told us that North Koreas program was indeed shut down.

It was. Until they started it again. Which wasn't hard to figure out, considering they announced it.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-03-09 02:18am

Vympel wrote:
Sea Skimmer wrote:Well, they also told us that North Koreas program was indeed shut down.
It was. Until they started it again. Which wasn't hard to figure out, considering they announced it.

North Korea admitted to have had a program going on for years before there recent admission.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-03-09 02:27am

Sea Skimmer wrote:
North Korea admitted to have had a program going on for years before there recent admission.

Ah. my bad.

I just looked some stuff up- when did IAEA say that NK's program was shut down? I can't find it.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2003-03-09 06:48am

The Duchess of Zeon wrote:Why should I trust anything released by an agency run by El-Baradei? The man is not objective in this case.

Of course, no one with an arabic name can be trusted </sarcasm>

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2003-03-09 07:01am

Dahak wrote: Of course, no one with an arabic name can be trusted </sarcasm>

No, not because of that, my friend. One moment.

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2003-03-09 07:13am

El-Baradei is an old Nasserist who was educated through the University of Cairo back in the early 60s - which was basically a Soviet technical school at the time - and got appointed to the Egyptian civil service in the 60s, too. Dahak, Nasserism is National Socialism. National Socialist parties have been active in Egypt and Syria since the thirties, and in the case of Nasser and his briefly formed United Arab Republic, that's what he was angling for - One People, The Arab People, as a National Socialist State with Israel ground under their heel. And El-Baradei got promoted in that culture. I'm inclined to suspect that such a man has an agenda in this, though Blix probably is the honest one.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2003-03-09 07:19am

The Duchess of Zeon wrote:El-Baradei is an old Nasserist who was educated through the University of Cairo back in the early 60s - which was basically a Soviet technical school at the time - and got appointed to the Egyptian civil service in the 60s, too. Dahak, Nasserism is National Socialism. National Socialist parties have been active in Egypt and Syria since the thirties, and in the case of Nasser and his briefly formed United Arab Republic, that's what he was angling for - One People, The Arab People, as a National Socialist State with Israel ground under their heel. And El-Baradei got promoted in that culture. I'm inclined to suspect that such a man has an agenda in this, though Blix probably is the honest one.

You forget the part where Baradei got a Doctorate in International Law at the New York University School of Law, and was professor at that law school for several years.
Just because you serve under a special government doesn't mean you fully endorse that particular one.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2003-03-09 07:20am

The Duchess of Zeon wrote:(Snip accusations)

Got PROOF, or are you buddy buddy with
National Socialists in your area (which is probably where you
got your info)

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2003-03-09 07:20am

The Duchess of Zeon wrote:
Dahak wrote: Of course, no one with an arabic name can be trusted </sarcasm>

No, not because of that, my friend. One moment.

I'm sorry if I misinterpreted you, but you should have elaborated a bit more in that one.

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2003-03-09 07:23am

Dahak wrote: I'm sorry if I misinterpreted you, but you should have elaborated a bit more in that one.

It's not a problem. I often presume people know as much about a subject or thing as I do and get bitten when they don't. (Not to suggest it's your fault for not researching El-Baradei's past service record, either; I consider it a personal failing I should work to rectify, if for no other reason than to provide the maximum information to everyone who might be interested in it.)

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2003-03-09 12:12pm

The Duchess of Zeon wrote:
Dahak wrote: I'm sorry if I misinterpreted you, but you should have elaborated a bit more in that one.
It's not a problem. I often presume people know as much about a subject or thing as I do and get bitten when they don't. (Not to suggest it's your fault for not researching El-Baradei's past service record, either; I consider it a personal failing I should work to rectify, if for no other reason than to provide the maximum information to everyone who might be interested in it.)

I read his curriculum vita before posting.
But your post made the impression that you'd be attacking him solely on being of arabic origin.