Equipment Used for Making Nuclear Weapons Goes Missing in Iraq

With the President's claims of keeping America safe and how the war with Iraq has made America safer, this alarming article from Reuters should soon be front page news.

We all know Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, but they did have dual-use equipment left over from their nuclear program. All of the equipment was tagged and monitored by the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), and now...it's missing.

U.S., British and Iraqi officials have downplayed the disappearance of the equipment, saying that it was part of the widespread looting that flared up after the March 2003 invasion, which the United States and Britain said was to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. Both countries now admit Saddam had no caches of banned weapons.

But several diplomats close to the IAEA said that this was not the result of haphazard looting.

They said the removal of this dual-use equipment -- which prior to the war was tagged and closely monitored by the IAEA to ensure that it was not being used in a weapons programme -- was planned and executed by people who knew what they were doing.

"We're talking about dozens of sites being dismantled," a diplomat said on condition of anonymity. "Large numbers of buildings taken down, warehouses were emptied and removed. This would require heavy machinery, demolition equipment. This is not something that you'd do overnight."

How safe do you feel now?

posted by Sarai @ 1:03 PM