The Gamut

Top News Article | Reuters.com

So just how stupid do they think we are? This is from the story linked above:

Iraq's interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi said the uranium and about 1,000 highly radioactive items from the former Iraqi nuclear research facility had been taken to the United States.

"I can now announce that the United States Department of Defense and Department of Energy have completed a joint operation to secure and remove from Iraq radiological and nuclear materials that the ousted regime could have potentially used in a radiological dispersal device or diverted to support a nuclear weapons program," Allawi said in a statement.

"Iraq has no intention and no will to resume these programs in the future. These materials which are potential weapons of mass murder are not welcome in our country and their production is unacceptable," Allawi said.

A "radiological dispersal device," or dirty bomb, uses a conventional explosive to disperse radioactive material over a wide area.

This material was taken from the Tuwaitha nuclear complex south of Baghdad. Do you remember Tuwaitha being in the news thirteen months ago? I do. Here:

Thousands of villagers raided the nuclear site, which contains low-grade or natural uranium, immediately after the fall of Saddam's regime.

Local scientists warn the site, outside Baghdad, is badly damaged, with looters having spilled radioactive material and leaving behind piles of uranium, The Associated Press said.

The uranium was concreted over to prevent leakage or further exposure to people living in the area.

Team leader Brian Rens told AP the IAEA's mission is to "determine what has been lost and any other material which is in an unsafe condition, to repack it to the extent possible, secure it, verify it and seal the building."

Villagers were able to raid the plant after it was left unguarded by U.S. troops following its abandonment by Iraqi guards in the early days of the war.

No reports have been recorded of anyone falling ill after being exposed to the material, which is highly toxic if ingested but gives off only low levels of radioactivity. (Emphasis mine; Mister)

Also, an inspection team was allowed access to the site in 2001, and found that it was in ruins since the 1991 bombing during Desert Storm and the Israeli attack on the site in 1981.

So Bush suggests that Hussein is building a nuclear bomb with enriched uranium and that he is trying to acquire more from Niger; but when we invade the country, we leave the site where this would be going on unguarded. Then when it is looted, we shrug it off as insignificant because the uranium is only harmful if actually eaten. Then, when we secret the stuff into our own country, we have the puppet government in Iraq triumphantly declare that Hussein would have used the stuff to kill us all.

Excuse me if I ain't buyin' the bullshit.

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