Uranium Irak niet bewaakt

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

Hoezo 'kunnen geen oorlogswapens vinden'?
We letten niet eens op de wapens waarvan we weten dat ze er zijn!

http://www.tnr.com/etc.mhtml
MATERIAL BREACH: America's failure to prevent the tragic looting of the Baghdad
National Museum has been an understandable source of outrage. But something far
worse than looted Mesopotamian art may soon turn up on the international black market:
looted Iraqi uranium. That's the grim news in this rather buried Washington Post story:
Before the war began last month, the vast Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center held 3,896
pounds of partially enriched uranium, more than 94 tons of natural uranium and smaller
quantities of cesium, cobalt and strontium, according to reports compiled through the
1990s by inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Immensely valuable on the international black market, the uranium was in a form
suitable for further enrichment to "weapons grade," the core of a nuclear device. The
other substances, products of medical and industrial waste, emit intense radiation. They
have been sought, officials said, by terrorists seeking to build a so-called dirty bomb,
which uses conventional explosives to scatter dangerous radioactive particles.

Defense officials acknowledge that the U.S. government has no idea whether any of
Tuwaitha's potentially deadly contents have been stolen, because it has not dispatched
investigators to appraise the site. What it does know, according to officials at the
Pentagon and U.S. Central Command, is that the sprawling campus, 11 miles south of
Baghdad, lay unguarded for days and that looters made their way inside.
Now, we can imagine--if not understand--how Donald Rumsfeld would have been simple-
minded enough to believe that no stuffy old museum would be worth U.S. military
protection. But this latest story defies explanation. Rumsfeld is a man obsessed with
weapons of mass destruction proliferation, and he justified the war in Iraq on those very
grounds. How could he possibly fail to realize the importance of locking down
vulnerable nuclear material? It's as baffling as it is outrageous. If it turns out that nuclear
material has indeed gone missing, another shrug of "stuff happens" will absolutely not be
an acceptable response from Rumsfeld. "I resign" might be more like it.

Groet,

Cees Binkhorst - cees at binkhorst.xs4all.nl

Thucides (on Secr. Powel's desk): "Of all the manifestations of power, restraint impresses men the most."

**********
Dit bericht is verzonden via de informele D66 discussielijst (D66 at nic.surfnet.nl).
Aanmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SUBSCRIBE D66
Afmelden: stuur een email naar LISTSERV at nic.surfnet.nl met in het tekstveld alleen: SIGNOFF D66
Het on-line archief is te vinden op: http://listserv.surfnet.nl/archives/d66.html
**********