Quote:
Claim: The removal of Yellowcake uranium from Iraq in 2008 proved that Saddam Hussein had been trying to restart Iraq's nuclear program.
Status: False.
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The yellowcake removed from Iraq in 2008 was material that had long since been identified, documented, and stored in sealed containers under the supervision of UN.N inspectors. It was not a "secret" cache that was recently "discovered" by the U.S., and the yellowcake had not been purchased by Iraq in the years immediately preceding the 2003 invasion. The uranium was the remnants of decades-old nuclear reactor projects that had [been] put out of commission many years earlier: One reactor at Al Tuwaitha was bombed by Israel in 1981, and another was bombed and disabled during Operation Desert Storm in 1991. Moreover, the fact that the yellowcake had been in Iraq since before the 1991 Gulf War was plainly stated in the Associated Press article cited in the example above.
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snopes.com: Yellowcake Uranium Removed from Iraq
For the millionth time, Iraq was not seeking weapons of mass destruction after the Gulf War. That information has been verified time and again as erroneous. The yellowcake story was an exaggeration of unreliable intelligence that later was confirmed as false.
Iraq War Rationalization Syndrome, like all instances of cognitive dissonance, can be treated with a daily dose of objectivity and an awareness that everyone, yourself included, has biases that color and even distort your understanding of reality. These biases do not have to skew your perception, however, and can be overcome. Second-guess yourself. Be skeptical even of your own conclusions.