An Interesting UPI Piece...

[stetto]

Of course these were planted long after the occupation, as were the other discoveries that will eventually be made, but still noteworthy...

BAGHDAD, July 21 (UPI) -- Iraqi security reportedly discovered three missiles carrying nuclear heads concealed in a concrete trench northwest of Baghdad, official sources said Wednesday. The official daily al-Sabah quoted the sources as saying the missiles were discovered in trenches near the city of Tikrit, the hometown of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. "The three missiles were discovered by chance when the Iraqi security forces captured former Baath party official Khoder al-Douri who revealed during interrogation the location of the missiles saying they carried nuclear heads," the sources said. They pointed out that the missiles were actually discovered in the trenches lying under six meters of concrete and designed in a way to unable sophisticated sensors from discovering nuclear radiation. The sources said al-Douri, who is related to former Vice Chairman of the Iraq Revolution Council and Saddam's right-hand man Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, was captured after Iraqi police intercepted an e-mail message in which he set a meeting with another former Baath official. The report could not be authenticated by the interior ministry or the national security department, but the paper noted Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiar Zibari made a surprise request recently to Mohammed el-Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to resume inspections for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. [/b]

[JohnC]

Downright interesting, but you're probably right, Stetto - they had to be planted. Maybe the Tooth Fairey? JohnC

[ctdahle]

quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=apmTeSnKRNtw&refer=us

July 21 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. officials and the United Nations' atomic agency cast doubt on a media report that nuclear weapons were found in Iraq, saying they agreed with the Iraqi interior ministry's assessment that the article was ``stupid.''

United Press International published a story this morning, citing Iraq's al-Sabah newspaper, saying three missiles carrying nuclear warheads had been found in trenches near the north- central city of Tikrit, the hometown of former leader Saddam Hussein. The discovery came after an interrogation of former Hussein-era Baath party official Khoder al-Douri, the newspaper said according to UPI, citing ``official sources.''

U.S. Army Major Earle Bluff in Baghdad said the report had been checked out, and nothing had been found as far as the U.S. was aware.

``There's nothing to confirm (the discovery)'', he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, speaking on the Sean Hannity radio show, said ``I would go with the Iraqi minister. I would be surprised if they found any such thing.''

International Atomic Energy Agency spokesman Peter Rickwood, while noting no IAEA employees are working in Iraq, said his agency believed the Interior Ministry statement.

The Bush administration invaded Iraq in March 2003, partly on the grounds that Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction from the international community. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at one point said the U.S. knew exactly where the banned weapons were.

President George W. Bush's main backer, U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, earlier this month said there was a possibility stockpiles of the banned weapons will never be found.

David Kay, who led the first postwar effort to find the banned weapons, told Congress in January that pre-war intelligence saying Hussein had weapons of mass destruction was wrong. Bush has said Americans are safer because Hussein is no longer in power, even if no banned weapons have been found.

[Cablemender]

Something about this doesn't pass the common sense test. Iraq had all it could do to get security forces put together, let alone train them in methods of detecting nuclear weapons. They SURE as heck aren't trained in handling them, so it would be folly for them to go digging up some 18-meter deep ditch a Saddam sympathizer told them about all by themselves. Being independent is one thing; killing yourself is something else. For all they knew, they might have unearthed some nasty nerve agent warhead and not lived to tell about it.

I don't think they would take that kind of risk without getting some help.

[ctdahle]

I suspect that if the story were really true, we'd be seeing photos and lots of "See, told ya so" press conferences.

[JohnC]

I don'tknow, CT... As screwy as this administration has been concerning the Illegal Alien problem, it's hard to say just what they'd do with this. They might still be trying to verify it, themselves!

Just like the Border Patrol Agent's telling the Editor of the Tombstone Tumbleweed about the mid-easterners getting picked up... they're denying it in D.C., but the troops are still saying yes down here! Go Figure! JohnC

[garygorf]

As a former nuclear weapons specialist, I will say this about that: an atom bomb cannot be detected with radiation equipment (Unless it is going off). This has been known since Harry Truman`s day, when he actually mentioned it in a speech. We never wore radiation badges unless we were tampering with the innards. If my word isn`t enough for you, note that the men in the Honest John and Corporal missile batteries didn`t wear radiation suits around the weapons.

Whomever wrote the original article sounds like another of the urban legend writers we`re seeing so (too) much of on the internet.

Gary

As much as it takes, as long as it takes.

[stetto]

Yep, I used to work on the F. E. Warren Airforce Base in Cheyenne (at the time purported to be the third largest nuclear weapons stockpile in the world, so I was told...), and most places on base other than quarters and civilian areas we were under armed guard at all times.

We worked on a lot of missile maintenance shacks (the MX had just become the new baby and for some reason didn't fit in the existing shacks), and I saw some of the most reckless behavior by maintenance crews and guards alike around those missiles. Though the warheads were removed to protect the innocent and kept in a different area, in the three years that I played at F.E.W.A.F.B I never once saw a radiation badge, suit, or anything to indicate that I was in the vicinity of a highly radioactive source. Except the guns and steel cold stares of the armed "escorts" who trailed us around base, that is...

[Britbrat]

Tritium & plutonium do not emit highly penetrating radiation -- you weren't in any particular danger unless you were exposed to unshielded plutonium at very close range (contact) or ingested it, or you were exposed to gasseous tritium -- not very likely.

[JohnC]

As a former Nuclear Weapons technician also, with a secondary job as a Disaster Preparedness Instructor, I agree with what has been said about detecting radiation. Unless it's almost sitting bare in front of you, it's almost impossible to detect.

We did wear radiation dosimeters at first, when we were working on the older systems, but the last fifiteen years I was in, we didn't. Detecting hidden nuclear material is just about as easy as finding that needle in the haystack (which is actually easier with a big magnet), JohnC

[stetto]

I recently watched a History Channel show on which the subject matter was the inspection of cargo truckboxes being offloaded at a port (New York? Don't remember now...). In any case, the detectors used by the Port Authority and Fed agents were so sensitive that they could detect minute amounts of radiation coming from natural sources in stone pottery, but the agents themselves said that the materials used by terrorists would be so small in volume that relatively great amounts of shielding could be used, rendering detection methods useless. The government, on the other hand, wasn't prepared to admit this...