Will Bush include Rotterdam harbor 'yellow-cake from Iraq' claim in SOTU?

[lostnfound]

Poll question: Will Bush include Rotterdam harbor 'yellow-cake from Iraq' claim in SOTU?

Last year, on the day before the SOTU, I came very close to mentioning to right-wing friends at work that 'well, I guess Bush won't be able to talk about those missile tubes in the SOTU'..because I already knew from the alternative press that the experts were saying they weren't suitable for WMDs.

I regretted not having planted that seed of doubt prior to the SOTU.

So now I wonder, will he make a mention of the IAEA's statement that the yellow-cake found in Rotterdam harbor probably came from Iraq in his SOTU address?

[grytpype]

1. He'll barely mention Iraq.

He might not mention it at all, just "victories in the war on Terra."

[POed_Ex_Repub]

2. He'll definitely mention Iraq..

Or at least the capture of Saddam. You'll hear "Ruthless Dictator" about twenty times before he moves on to Economic issues (ie. that thing that's killing him now)

[Liberal_Andy]

3. Maybe,...if Unka Dick says to,...

he will.

He'll do what he's told.

The tool.

[chascarrillo]

4. Possible, but unlikely

Although I do think it's possible, I think that the potential backlash if it turns out that it isn't true would be much too risky. I won't be surprised if there's a veiled reference made to it, however. Cagily worded, of course.

[OneTwentyoNine]

5. Nah,yellow cake sounds pretty good to the average Murikan...

Doesn't have that evile ring that WMD had--and you can bet your sweet ASS than Chimp isn't going to bring up WMD.

David

[Stephanie]

6. I hope he does.

Then I would expect the press to ask him why he allowed the known nuclear sites in Iraq to be looted.

Why did they rush to station guards at the Oil Ministry but not at Iraq's largest nuclear site, Tuwaitha?

Why he did do nothing to prevent the looting of yellow cake in Iraq?

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. I agree

I was about to post something along the same lines.

The US now occupies Iraq. Any yellowcake, or anything else that ships out of there now, is our responsiblity and therefore will show the rest of the world, how out of control things are in Iraq, now that we got rid of Saddam.

[Stephanie]

10. Let's ask him to explain THIS:

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/6068775.htm

Looting of Iraqi nuclear facility indicts U.S. goals
If we feared the loss of radioactive materials, why not guard them?
TRUDY RUBIN
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Posted on Thu, Jun. 12, 2003

TUWAITHA, Iraq - On a dusty road, just outside of Baghdad, lies one of the great mysteries of the Iraq war.

<snip>

The administration knew full well what was stored at Tuwaitha. So how is it possible that the U.S. military failed to secure the nuclear facility until weeks after the war started? This left looters free to ransack the barrels, dump their contents, and sell them to villagers for storage. How is it possible that, according to Iraqi nuclear scientists, looters are still stealing radioactive isotopes?

The Tuwaitha story makes a mockery of the administration's vaunted concern with weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. military hastened to secure the Ministry of Oil in Baghdad from looters. But Iraq's main nuclear facility was apparently not important enough to get similar protection.

<snip>

And why, in facilities other than Location C, is the looting apparently continuing? Hisham Abdel Malik, a Iraqi nuclear scientist who lives near Tuwaitha and has been inside the complex, told me that in buildings "where there are radioactive isotopes, there is looting every day." He says the isotopes, which are in bright silver containers, "are sold in the black market or kept in homes." According to IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming, such radioactive sources can kill on contact or pollute whole neighborhoods.

How could an administration that had hyped the danger of Saddam handing off nuclear materials to terrorists let Tuwaitha be looted? Maybe the hype was just hype ... or maybe the Pentagon didn't send enough troops to Iraq to do the job right.

Either answer is damning.

[Eric J in MN]

7. I chose no. The depleted uranium could be from

I chose no. The depleted uranium could be from the post Gulf War stockpile the US failed to guard after taking over Iraq.

And it could be from depleted uranimum bombs the US dropped during the Gulf War or the Iraq War.

It would just anger people to mention it. I predict the terms "yellowcake" or "depleted uranium" don't appear in the speech tomorrow night.

[maggrwaggr]

9. I'm expecting some jaw-dropping whoppers to be told

Just wait.

He'll probably mention all kinds of nasty stuff from Iraq which will be a lie. He'll probably have somebody sitting in the balcony who was a victim of Saddam's torture chambers or some bullshit like that.

[Cat Atomic]

11. No. "Yellow cake" recalls the forged Nigerian documents. n/t