The White House wasted no time citing the Obeidi finds as proof of WMD activity by Iraq – which, of course, it is, though at a threat level considerably below what some might think would necessitate a military invasion halfway around the world. You need thousands of these machines running fulltime for years in a major industrial plant, not a can of decade-old prototype parts, to enrich uranium to weapons grade. “What’s notable is that this case illustrates the extreme challenge that the world community faces in Iraq as we search for evidence of WMD programs that were designed to elude detection by international inspectors,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said from the White House Press Room, not the White House Rose Garden. He provided no estimate of how many Iraqi rose gardens would now have to be dug up by American military forces in the coming months and years to assure our national security from dangerous foreign technology.
In the meantime, the Administration and CIA were so eager to show off to the world their figurative fig leaf, er, cache of components of mass destruction that they forgot that it’s information, not hardware, that is truly dangerous. After posting an official statement concerning the Obeidi find on the CIA website (mirrored here on the Federation of American Scientists website), somebody remembered, Oh, we’re pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war over these exact same devices being built by the Iranians and North Koreans (see What A Mess, Part 1); perhaps we might not ought to show them pictures of similar Iraqi components of mass destruction, or they might learn a thing or two they didn’t already know before. Duh! Duh! Duh!
So, the CIA pulled the Rosebud files and photos off its site, but not before everybody on the Internet had already made a copy– including SciScoop; check ’em out below. We’ll let you know whether our log files show downloads into Iran or North Korea before the FBI makes us take our copies off the SciScoop server.
I repeat, there are people who believe national security is too important to be handled by anybody but the Bush Administration and other conservatives? Hooboy.
Iraqi Component of Mass Destruction Photo #1
Iraqi Component of Mass Destruction Photo #2
Iraqi Component of Mass Destruction Photo #3
Iraqi Component of Mass Destruction Photo #4
Iraqi Component of Mass Destruction Photo #5
Iraqi Component of Mass Destruction Photo #6
I doubt you care but you have one less reader.
does the truth hurt that much?
…diverse topics and opinions on them are at the very heart of science. Besides, we voted for your story….
…at least he didn’t say “good riddance!”
I talk about science and I didn’t even consider the most obvious possibility. You tell ’em, Jay!!!
Why?
And…
Of the three “Axis Of Evil” countries, which two are actually making nukes that are a threat to America? Which one was just sitting nukeless on a huge pool of oil? Which one of the three have we expended our financial, military and political capital to pacify? Was this the choice that makes America safest in years to come?
hey forgot that it’s information, not hardware, that is truly dangerous
So you needed to provide more detail.
I’m willing to just see fuzzy pictures and accept the expert’s opinion of what they mean. It’s not as if any of us really need to know the details of actual nuclear engineering. Those who really want to play with fissionables don’t need to be given shortcuts.
Yes, I also am referring to the high-school kid that has a washing machine running at 10,000 RPM in his backyard shed for three years to see what he can make for a science project. He might not need detailed drawings.
I was talking to the A.H. only I replied in the wrong place