Scientist: Iraq was on brink of A-bomb (In 1991 not 2003)

[sabra]

http://www.journalnet.com/articles/2005/08/10/news/local/news03.txt

Scientist: Iraq was on brink of A-bomb

IDAHO FALLS -A former Iraqi nuclear scientist told a crowd here that Iraq was on the brink of having a nuclear bomb just before the 1991 invasion of the country by U.S. and allied forces.

Mahdi Obeidi, who worked under Saddam Hussein, spoke to a full house gathered at the World Nuclear University Summer Institute Monday.

....

In June 2003, Obeidi contacted a former United Nations Weapons inspector and told him there was part of a gas centrifuge system for enriching uranium and blueprints hidden under a rose bush in his garden. He put them there 12 years earlier just before the Desert Storm invasion, under orders from Hussein Kamel, Saddam Hussein's son-in-law.

....

During questions, an audience member asked why, if Saddam had no weapons in 2003, did he not allow inspectors into Iraq.

Obeidi responded simply, "Because he was a lunatic."

on edit: add headline comments

[SteppingRazor]

1. Yeah, he was on the brink -- in 1991!

Not before our current idiocy.

[sabra]

3. bingo!

[grytpype]

2. He DID allow inspectors in!

Jesus Christ!

[mattclearing]

13. It never ceases to amaze me how ignorant people are on this point.

Saddam did everything he could to comply short of resigning.

[Tempest]

4. He's a damned liar

During questions, an audience member asked why, if Saddam had no weapons in 2003, did he not allow inspectors into Iraq.

Obeidi responded simply, "Because he was a lunatic."


Saddam allowed inspectors into Iraq in 2002. They were doing their job up until Bush forced them to leave so he could get his war on.

[skypilot]

11. It absolutely boggles my mind...

...that there are people out there who actually believe that Saddam didn't let inspectors into Iraq. It would take a massive amount of ignorance and laziness on the front end or an equally incredible amount of forgetting on the back end to walk around believing this nonsense. Don't they have newspapers and electricity where these people live? Saddam's agreeing to let the inspectors in was BIG news.

[sjeberling]

5. Weapon Inspectors were in Iraq 2003.

Bush told them to get out he is a lunatic

[anotherdrew]

6. IF true CIA bungling AQ Khan network MADE it possible

why oh why must there be zero accountability?

[StrafingMoose]

9. Exactly...

Did Khan leak secrets to Iraq to?

[TahitiNut]

7. Why doesn't Duhbya stop beating his wife?

:eyes:

[geek tragedy]

8. In 1991, not 2003. Please note that St. Ronnie Raygun

and Poppy Bush were perfectly happy to let Saddam have the bomb before he threatened the oil supply.

[The_Casual_Observer]

10. That guy is full of shit. There was an old coffee urn under his rosebush

They dug it up and showed it years ago. What is he charging for these personal appearances anyway?

[Zorra]

12. They're bringing Obeidi out again? Why didn't he bring this up before?

U.S. nearly ignored Iraqi nuclear scientist, intermediary says

Saturday, June 28, 2003

(CNN) -- The high-ranking Iraqi nuclear scientist who led U.S. officials to hidden centrifuge blueprints and components told CNN he was detained by the Army despite the fact that he was already cooperating with the CIA, and the intermediary who facilitated his contact with the U.S. government said he was initially ignored.
snip----
Once released, Obeidi resumed his meetings with CIA personnel, whom he said he believed had agreed to move him and his family out of the country for protection in return for handing over the documents and designs. But he said he then began to think that the CIA was going back on its word.

"First they have promised that they will make all the attempts to safeguard me ... and then what happened they told me that they have looked and they have investigated this matter, and they have discovered that there is more that I can offer, and they are ready to take the news to the media," he recalled.

Albright advised Obeidi at that point to go public with his story.

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/06/27/sprj.irq.obeidi/

[Dogmudgeon]

14. Yeah, me too

I was building one in my bedroom, and it was almost done.

Then I got a girlfriend and forgot about it. Mom thought it was a pile of trash and threw it out.

--p!
Anyway, it's all Clinton's fault.