Among the dozens of documents in English were Iraqi reports written in the 1990s and in 2002 for United Nations inspectors in charge of making sure Iraq had abandoned its unconventional arms programs after the Persian Gulf war. Experts say that at the time, Mr. Hussein’s scientists were on the verge of building an atom bomb, as little as a year away. [emphasis mine]that's right... roughly a year before we invaded iraq, saddam was quite likely a year away from having a nuclear weapon. which means that had we not invaded, we could very well be facing a nuclear iraq and/or terrorists armed with nuclear capabilities.
on sort of a side note, since when has the new york times been concerned with keeping a secret [SWIFT, phone tapping/records, CIA prisons, "harsh" interrogation, etc.]?
see here and here for more posting on this.
Just to clarify, Iraq was 1 year away from having a nuke in 1991. Thats when the documents regarding the atomic weapons plans were dated.
ReplyDeleteBut in recent weeks, the site has posted some documents that weapons experts say are a danger themselves: detailed accounts of Iraq’s secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The documents, the experts say, constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb.
After the first Gulf War, he no longer had the capability.
So this by no means proves that Saddam was close to having a weapon ready in 2003.
The real problem here is that these plans were posted on a public website by our government, where they could be downloaded by anyone with an internet connection. This is especially dangerous due to the facts that anti-American sentiment is higher than ever before and the Russians can't keep track of their own nuclear material worth a damn.