on the fabrications that were used to justify invading iraq - Page 2 - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Marvelous Marv · 03-16-2011, 11:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roachboy

today in cnn, because of powell's reaction:

Powell questions handling of Iraqi defector - CNN.com

this is the first mainstream press mention in the states that i've found.

the story is running around below the surface.

does anyone actually watch cnn? i can't make myself do it....

It is indeed amazing how so many newsworthy items are hidden from the public.

U.S. removes 'yellowcake' from Iraq - World news - Mideast/N. Africa - Conflict in Iraq - msnbc.com

Quote:

Secret U.S. mission hauls uranium from Iraq
Last major stockpile from Saddam's nuclear efforts arrives in Canada

The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program — a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium — reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.

The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" — the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment — was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.

What's now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles south of Baghdad — using teams that include Iraqi experts recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.

"Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq," said a senior U.S. official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called "dirty bomb" — a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive material — it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast. Yellowcake also can be enriched for use in reactors and, at higher levels, nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment.

The Iraqi government sold the yellowcake to a Canadian uranium producer, Cameco Corp., in a transaction the official described as worth "tens of millions of dollars." A Cameco spokesman, Lyle Krahn, declined to discuss the price, but said the yellowcake will be processed at facilities in Ontario for use in energy-producing reactors.

"We are pleased ... that we have taken (the yellowcake) from a volatile region into a stable area to produce clean electricity," he said.

Secret mission
The deal culminated more than a year of intense diplomatic and military initiatives — kept hushed in fear of ambushes or attacks once the convoys were under way: first carrying 3,500 barrels by road to Baghdad, then on 37 military flights to the Indian Ocean atoll of Diego Garcia and finally aboard a U.S.-flagged ship for a 8,500-mile trip to Montreal.

And, in a symbolic way, the mission linked the current attempts to stabilize Iraq with some of the high-profile claims about Saddam's weapons capabilities in the buildup to the 2003 invasion.

Accusations that Saddam had tried to purchase more yellowcake from the African nation of Niger — and an article by a former U.S. ambassador refuting the claims — led to a wide-ranging probe into Washington leaks that reached high into the Bush administration.

Tuwaitha and an adjacent research facility were well known for decades as the centerpiece of Saddam's nuclear efforts.

Israeli warplanes bombed a reactor project at the site in 1981. Later, U.N. inspectors documented and safeguarded the yellowcake, which had been stored in aging drums and containers since before the 1991 Gulf War. There was no evidence of any yellowcake dating from after 1991, the official said.

U.S. and Iraqi forces have guarded the 23,000-acre site — surrounded by huge sand berms — following a wave of looting after Saddam's fall that included villagers toting away yellowcake storage barrels for use as drinking water cisterns.

Yellowcake is obtained by using various solutions to leach out uranium from raw ore and can have a corn meal-like color and consistency. It poses no severe risk if stored and sealed properly. But exposure carries well-documented health concerns associated with heavy metals such as damage to internal organs, experts say.

"The big problem comes with any inhalation of any of the yellowcake dust," said Doug Brugge, a professor of public health issues at the Tufts University School of Medicine.

Hurdles ahead of hauling yellowcake
Diplomats and military leaders first weighed the idea of shipping the yellowcake overland to Kuwait's port on the Persian Gulf. Such a route, however, would pass through Iraq's Shiite heartland and within easy range of extremist factions, including some that Washington claims are aided by Iran. The ship also would need to clear the narrow Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, where U.S. and Iranian ships often come in close contact.

Kuwaiti authorities, too, were reluctant to open their borders to the shipment despite top-level lobbying from Washington.

An alternative plan took shape: shipping out the yellowcake on cargo planes.

But the yellowcake still needed a final destination. Iraqi government officials sought buyers on the commercial market, where uranium prices spiked at about $120 per pound last year. It's currently selling for about half that. The Cameco deal was reached earlier this year, the official said.

At that point, U.S.-led crews began removing the yellowcake from the Saddam-era containers — some leaking or weakened by corrosion — and reloading the material into about 3,500 secure barrels.

In April, truck convoys started moving the yellowcake from Tuwaitha to Baghdad's international airport, the official said. Then, for two weeks in May, it was ferried in 37 flights to Diego Garcia, a speck of British territory in the Indian Ocean where the U.S. military maintains a base.

On June 3, an American ship left the island for Montreal, said the official, who declined to give further details about the operation.

The yellowcake wasn't the only dangerous item removed from Tuwaitha.

Earlier this year, the military withdrew four devices for controlled radiation exposure from the former nuclear complex. The lead-enclosed irradiation units, used to decontaminate food and other items, contain elements of high radioactivity that could potentially be used in a weapon, according to the official. Their Ottawa-based manufacturer, MDS Nordion, took them back for free, the official said.

Saddam's stockpile
The yellowcake was the last major stockpile from Saddam's nuclear efforts, but years of final cleanup is ahead.

Quote:

Originally Posted by yournamehere

Actually, instead of watching CNN, wouldn't it be more fun to watch how Fox News will explain how it's all Obama's fault?

Quote:

Originally Posted by aceventura3

How about the duplicitous nature of the media and the Obama administration?

Yes, remember how the price of oil was going to zoom because of Bush and his "oil buddies?" How about Obama's instituting a second moratorium when the courts struck down his first one? Apparently, he's too stupid to realize that a moratorium on offshore drilling is like banning airplane flights after one of them crashes.

Willravel · 03-17-2011, 12:17 AM

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.
...
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.

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.

roachboy · 03-17-2011, 04:11 AM

that's ok marv. i expect nothing less from your reality-optional political viewpoint.

i think this essay outlining neo-conservative political philosophy and how it has been mapped onto various notions of governing explains a lot about iraq.

Neoconservatism Unmasked | Thompson C. Bradley | Cato Unbound

it comes from one of those goofy right libertarian positions so has some linguistic tics and odd arguments based on them--but nonetheless gets much about neo-conservatism right. and it emphasizes the relation of neo-con thinking to a kind of soft fascism. which we saw during the bush period.

just turned out that there were folk who liked it.

interesting read....

Willravel · 03-17-2011, 08:18 AM

A corporatist libertarian critique of neoconservatism? I think my head just exploded.

roachboy · 03-17-2011, 09:02 AM

it's not that surprising if you think about it. consider the divisions amongst the more conservative folk who swim about in our little fishbowl---more are conservative libertarians than are outright neo-cons. personally i think both positions are ill-considered and dangerous but to very different degrees and in very different ways. for example, the libertarian set in congress might at this very minute be quietly working to repeal almost all of the regulations on the derivatives trade and other shady stuff that wall street was able to get away with during the extended coma that was the greenspan fed/bush administration nexus

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51458.html

but they wouldn't have gotten the united states mired in afghanistan or iraq.

iraq in particular is a pretty direct result of this way of thinking/acting while holding power.

03-17-2011, 04:11 AM	#43 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	that's ok marv. i expect nothing less from your reality-optional political viewpoint. i think this essay outlining neo-conservative political philosophy and how it has been mapped onto various notions of governing explains a lot about iraq. Neoconservatism Unmasked \| Thompson C. Bradley \| Cato Unbound it comes from one of those goofy right libertarian positions so has some linguistic tics and odd arguments based on them--but nonetheless gets much about neo-conservatism right. and it emphasizes the relation of neo-con thinking to a kind of soft fascism. which we saw during the bush period. just turned out that there were folk who liked it. interesting read.... __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite

03-17-2011, 09:02 AM	#45 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	it's not that surprising if you think about it. consider the divisions amongst the more conservative folk who swim about in our little fishbowl---more are conservative libertarians than are outright neo-cons. personally i think both positions are ill-considered and dangerous but to very different degrees and in very different ways. for example, the libertarian set in congress might at this very minute be quietly working to repeal almost all of the regulations on the derivatives trade and other shady stuff that wall street was able to get away with during the extended coma that was the greenspan fed/bush administration nexus http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0311/51458.html but they wouldn't have gotten the united states mired in afghanistan or iraq. iraq in particular is a pretty direct result of this way of thinking/acting while holding power. __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 03-17-2011 at 09:05 AM..

03-17-2011, 08:18 AM	#44 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	A corporatist libertarian critique of neoconservatism? I think my head just exploded.