Originally posted by marg6043
Yes it did have a nuclear program before the gulf war.
Fair point. I do now note that you did say his nuclear era, which had escaped me earlier, but I would have thought that this woudl have been removed
by the inspectors prior to 98. Course, they may be less competent than I had hoped, but I would not like to believe that to be the case. I would also
say that I had meant this incarnation of the Iraq War. I didn't see any reference in that site to any developements to his nuclear programme since
1993. Maybe I skimmed it too fast and missed them, but I doubt it. Yes, Saddam did attempt to build nukes, yes Israel bombed his first plant for their
construction (and a good thing too), and yes, he was continuing to try to get them up until the first incarnation of the Gulf War. What I do not
accept, and have not seen many references to since the Niger Yellow CAke accusation were refuted, is that this had continued despite the inspections
regime which lasted until 1998.
Since the Yellow CAke accusation was proven to be the result of forged documents, the idea that he still had any sort of nuclear programme (other than
the ambition to restart it at some date) has vanished, to be replaced by the discussion of chemical and biological weapons.
I'm sure you will mention anything you find to prove me wrong.
Actually, come to think of it, I seem to recall stories of people looting barrels which had been used to contain nuclear materials (waste products I
think). So I probably ought to apoligise, the inspectors may have been less competent than I had believed. I still don't think it enables us to say
we know that this is the source of the material in this report, but it does mean your point was more valid than I had initially felt.
[edit on 15-6-2004 by Yog the Sloth]