NEW YORK, July 5, 2008
U.S. Secretly Takes Yellowcake From Iraq
A Huge Stockpile Of Natural Uranium Arrives In Canada After Secret U.S. Operation
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The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" - the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment - was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.
What is now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles (19 kilometers) south of Baghdad - using teams that include Iraqi experts recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.
"Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq," said a senior U.S. official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called "dirty bomb" - a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive material - it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast. Yellowcake also can be enriched for use in reactors and, at higher levels, nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment.
The Iraqi government sold the yellowcake to a Canadian uranium producer, Cameco Corp., in a transaction the official described as worth "tens of millions of dollars." A Cameco spokesman, Lyle Krahn, declined to discuss the price, but said the yellowcake will be processed at facilities in Ontario for use in energy-producing reactors.
"We are pleased ... that we have taken (the yellowcake) from a volatile region into a stable area to produce clean electricity," he said.
The deal culminated more than a year of intense diplomatic and military initiatives - kept hushed in fear of ambushes or attacks once the convoys were under way: first carrying 3,500 barrels by road to Baghdad, then on 37 military flights to the Indian Ocean atoll of Diego Garcia and finally aboard a U.S.-flagged ship for a 8,500-mile trip to Montreal.
And, in a symbolic way, the mission linked the current attempts to stabilize Iraq with some of the high-profile claims about Saddam's weapons capabilities in the buildup to the 2003 invasion.
Accusations that Saddam had tried to purchase more yellowcake from the African nation of Niger - and an article by a former U.S. ambassador refuting the claims - led to a wide-ranging probe into Washington leaks that reached high into the Bush administration.
Tuwaitha and an adjacent research facility were well known for decades as the centerpiece of Saddam's nuclear efforts.
Israeli warplanes bombed a reactor project at the site in 1981. Later, U.N. inspectors documented and safeguarded the yellowcake, which had been stored in aging drums and containers since before the 1991 Gulf War. There was no evidence of any yellowcake dating from after 1991, the official said.
U.S. and Iraqi forces have guarded the 23,000-acre (9,300-hectare) site - surrounded by huge sand berms - following a wave of looting after Saddam's fall that included villagers toting away yellowcake storage barrels for use as drinking water cisterns.
Yellowcake is obtained by using various solutions to leach out uranium from raw ore and can have a corn meal-like color and consistency. It poses no severe risk if stored and sealed properly. But exposure carries well-documented health concerns associated with heavy metals such as damage to internal organs, experts say.
"The big problem comes with any inhalation of any of the yellowcake dust," said Doug Brugge, a professor of public health issues at the Tufts University School of Medicine.
Moving the yellowcake faced numerous hurdles.
Diplomats and military leaders first weighed the idea of shipping the yellowcake overland to Kuwait's port on the Persian Gulf. Such a route, however, would pass through Iraq's Shiite heartland and within easy range of extremist factions, including some that Washington claims are aided by Iran. The ship also would need to clear the narrow Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf, where U.S. and Iranian ships often come in close contact.
Kuwaiti authorities, too, were reluctant to open their borders to the shipment despite top-level lobbying from Washington.
An alternative plan took shape: shipping out the yellowcake on cargo planes.
But the yellowcake still needed a final destination. Iraqi government officials sought buyers on the commercial market, where uranium prices spiked at about $120 per pound last year. It's currently selling for about half that. The Cameco deal was reached earlier this year, the official said.
At that point, U.S.-led crews began removing the yellowcake from the Saddam-era containers - some leaking or weakened by corrosion - and reloading the material into about 3,500 secure barrels.
In April, truck convoys started moving the yellowcake from Tuwaitha to Baghdad's international airport, the official said. Then, for two weeks in May, it was ferried in 37 flights to Diego Garcia, a speck of British territory in the Indian Ocean where the U.S. military maintains a base.
On June 3, an American ship left the island for Montreal, said the official, who declined to give further details about the operation.
The yellowcake wasn't the only dangerous item removed from Tuwaitha.
Earlier this year, the military withdrew four devices for controlled radiation exposure from the former nuclear complex. The lead-enclosed irradiation units, used to decontaminate food and other items, contain elements of high radioactivity that could potentially be used in a weapon, according to the official. Their Ottawa-based manufacturer, MDS Nordion, took them back for free, the official said.
The yellowcake was the last major stockpile from Saddam's nuclear efforts, but years of final cleanup is ahead for Tuwaitha and other smaller sites.
The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency plans to offer technical expertise.
Last month, a team of Iraqi nuclear experts completed training in the Ukrainian ghost town of Pripyat, which once housed the Chernobyl workers before the deadly meltdown in 1986, said an IAEA official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decontamination plan has not yet been publicly announced.
But the job ahead is enormous, complicated by digging out radioactive "hot zones" entombed in concrete during Saddam's rule, said the IAEA official. Last year, an IAEA safety expert, Dennis Reisenweaver, predicted the cleanup could take "many years."
The yellowcake issue also is one of the many troubling footnotes of the war for Washington.
A CIA officer, Valerie Plame, claimed her identity was leaked to journalists to retaliate against her husband, former Ambassador Joe Wilson, who wrote that he had found no evidence to support assertions that Iraq tried to buy additional yellowcake from Niger.
A federal investigation led to the conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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See all 110 CommentsTo All the Bush Haters...
The Proof is in the yellowcake!
550 Metric TONS!
Bush lied, people died, blah, blah, blah.
The Liberals will buy into anything that is Anti-American.
The article is OLD news just like the RepubliCON Greedy OLD Party Nazis like you. Try reading the article several times for it to sink in your pea brain...
550 Tons.
Good reason to take Saddam out.
(Besides the million plus deaths!)
To All the Bush Haters...
The Proof is in the yellowcake!
550 Metric TONS!
Posted by republic1776
Un inspectors kept an ete on this before the Iraq war. They were aware of it. It has to be enriched before anything can be done with it. REad the story and quit reading the headlines
Re: "A Huge Stockpile Of Natural Uranium Arrives In Canada After Secret U.S. Operation"
So the Bush regime even paid off a couple of their stooges to steal uranium from the Iraqis too?
Is there anything that they do not seek to plunder?
Re: "The Yellowcake was in Iraq all along."
"550 Tons."
Posted by republic1776
The fact that the Bush bobble-heads are clinging to this absurd argument is evidence that they realize that their goose is about cooked.
Mmm, no dingbat. Take a couple pounds of yellow cake and pound of plastic explosive, attach a blasting cap and you have an excellent radiological dispersal device (RDD), which is, last I checked, a WMD.
Mmm, no dingbat. Take a couple pounds of yellow cake and pound of plastic explosive, attach a blasting cap and you have an excellent radiological dispersal device (RDD), which is, last I checked, a WMD.
Posted by Tiger8055 at 11:52 PM : Jul 05, 2008
"Yellowcake is obtained by using various solutions to leach out uranium from raw ore and can have a corn meal-like color and consistency. It poses no severe risk if stored and sealed properly. But exposure carries well-documented health concerns associated with heavy metals such as damage to internal organs, experts say."
WE NEED TO BAN ALL HEAVY METALS!!! MerCURY AND LEAD IN A DIRTY BOMB COULD CAUSE MASSIVE DAMAGE!!!
Tiger8055,
Re: "Take a couple pounds of yellow cake and pound of plastic explosive, attach a blasting cap and you have an excellent radiological dispersal device (RDD), which is, last I checked, a WMD."
You had better check again. It sounds like you don''t have any idea what you are talking about.
A pile of uranium blown around with some explosives would not kill anyone outside of the range of the explosives alone.
Anyway, the Bush regime left this yellow-cake unguarded at the beginning of the illegal invasion against Iraq, and the site was reportedly heavily looted.
So if the distribution of this material is something that you are really worried about, then you can blame its distribution on the Bush regime *** once again.
I have news for you. If it was true, the find of all of this yellow cake would have benn TRUMPETED by the neocons since the war began.
There is something fishy about this story (and its leaking).
No, I''m afraid you''re wrong. Doctors now say that breathing in nearly pure Uranium 238 can actually kill you.
Re: "No, I''m afraid you''''re wrong. Doctors now say that breathing in nearly pure Uranium 238 can actually kill you."
Posted by Tiger8055
Well, first off this is not pure uranium.
Second, if it was dispersed with explosives, then it would be even less pure, as it would be mixed with air and explosives.
Lastly, one tiny bomb containing yellow cake would not be nearly as dangerous as the tons and tons of depleted uranium that the U.S. has already sprayed all around Iraq and Afghanistan, so quit your whining.
''Later, U.N. inspectors documented and safeguarded the yellowcake, which had been stored in aging drums and containers since before the 1991 Gulf War. There was no evidence of any yellowcake dating from after 1991, the official said.''
If this stuff had been there and the Bushit regime knew about it all along, they''d have been telling all about it to justify their unpopular war.
They couldn''t find WMDs then, and they can''t find WMDs now.
Is yellow cake uranium truly a WMD? I''m no weapons expert, but I''m sure it can''t be a good thing, else why make such a big deal about it now? The Bushit regime is so desperate to justify their war that if they''d found a thousand tons of box cutters, they''d have said they were slated for airlines all over the world and thus "weapons of mass destruction."
And as others have already said... if this is such a "secret" operation, why is it plastered all over the news? Real Frickin'' secret, huh? It was "leaked" by Bushit officials so that people would ''hear'' about it and suddenly agree that the Iraq war was a ''good'' thing.
Even if it WERE yellow cake uranium that was actually found in Iraq, it took them THIS LONG to find it? Yeah, right. It''s election time... gotta make the conservatives look good during an election year!
Again, what a crock of poo.
The petro-terrorists at Exxon-Mobil, along with the other war profiteers and pirates, are the main winners of the criminal war of aggression against Iraq.
More and more evidence is stacking up against the tired, worn out, fake arguments of the America-hating liberals!
"Bush lied", the liberals said, about intelligence data of Saddams'' WMD program.
The truth is, all the Eastern and European intelligence agencies came to the same conclusion as the U.S. intelligence agencies PRIOR TO THE BEGINNING OF THE IRAQ WAR.
As it turns out, the liberals were the ones that have been lying all along - not President Bush.
Thousands of disproven lies, repeated daily, by the traitorous leftist lunatic fringe.
Re: "The truth is, all the Eastern and European intelligence agencies came to the same conclusion as the U.S. intelligence agencies PRIOR TO THE BEGINNING OF THE IRAQ WAR."
Posted by OneAmerican
If that were true, then the regime could have rammed through an actionable Security Council resolution, and your Fuhrer might not be a war criminal.
I wouldn''t think that anyone could be dumb enough to confuse yellow-cake with weapons of mass destruction.
You have proven me wrong.
You guys will obviously believe anything, so long as it props-up your disgraced Fuhrer.
In a 1998 interview, Osama bin Laden %u2014 the terrorist organizer of 9/11 who still roams free %u2014 listed as one of his many grievances against the U.S. that Americans %u201Chave stolen $36 trillion from Muslims%u201D by purchasing oil from Persian Gulf countries at low prices. The real price of a barrel of oil should be $144, bin Laden demanded.
Ten years ago today, the price of a barrel of oil was just $11. Heading into this holiday weekend, the price of a barrel of oil rested at $144 %u2014 a thirteen-fold increase.
One month after 9/11, the New York Times wrote of possible %u201Cnightmare%u201D scenarios that would deliver bin Laden%u2019s goal. Neela Banerjee warned that among the %u201Cmisguided decisions%u201D that would put oil supplies at risk would be %u201Cthat the United States attacks Iraq.%u201D The Times included this quote in its story:
%u201CIf bin Laden takes over and becomes king of Saudi Arabia, he%u2019d turn off the tap,%u201D said Roger Diwan, a managing director of the Petroleum Finance Company, a consulting firm in Washington. %u201CHe said at one point that he wants oil to be $144 a barrel%u201D %u2014 about six times what it sells for now.
Got to love when a plan comes together. Interesting info.
You too. Good info.
Who would of thought that spunk was the missing piece in the WMD mystery the whole time. I wish you would of told our commander in chief this info years ago.
"Terrorists Defeated" and
the dreaded "Yellow Cake" in the
same topic titles.
And now to stand back and
watch and hear the propaganda
"THUD" on the floor at their feet.
What is this? Repubs'' twentieth 15-minuets
in the sun?
They''re getting scratched up
parting the weeds and rushing out
into the revealing nature of sun light.
No matter, future reports that the bar for
committing a war crime has been lowered
and that now Bush is considered an heroic
invader of a dastardly despot will again
have them scrambling from wherever
it is that they disapear to.
They should watch that sunlight , ,even
makes Briteny look bad.
Posted by JTait2 at 08:05 AM : Jul 06, 2008
Good trick on a voting machine...
Sheesh.
This is a blaring reason why the WAR must go on. There is a lot of profit there for somebody and the presence of soldiers makes it possible to work, just like this article supports.
Just think how informative this report of stockpiled yellowcake would have been prior to the 2004 election. What I find perplexing is the fact that a "senior US offical" hiding under ''condition of annonymity'' would give this information to AP on a weekend during the time when Congress is on vacation?
What is the true purpose of his/her actions? Is it to inform or engage the fear machine?
You can always tell the Obama supporters.....They never voted before!!!
Posted by JTait2 at 08:41 AM : Jul 06, 2008
Okay, educate us.
I''m 40 years old, and have been voting every two years for the last 20 years. Please inform us how you "write in" someone''s name on the ballot.
Do you break a lever off, and put a piece of paper in the hole? Maybe that''s what the "hanging chad" is for?
Why don''t you just admit your real agenda?
You''re a McCain hack, that''s trying to dissuade as many people as possible from voting for Obama.
The sad thing is, the ONLY reason you''re doing it is because you KNOW FOR A FACT that McCain has NO CHANCE of winning, going one on one with the issues, so you''re trying to "sneak" him to victory.
The real question is, why are you supporting a candidate that is much, much weaker on the issues? Do you NOT want the best candidate in office?
You can always tell the Obama supporters.....They never voted before!!!
Posted by JTait2 at 08:41 AM : Jul 06, 2008
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Could it be that Rowdy-the-racist-Wicca is now posting under a new ID?
Just asking.
TIME TO VOTE AWAY FROM THE GOOD OLD LIES........ A VOTE FOR MACSHAME IS A VOTE FOR KEEPING THE LIES ALIVE, BREAK OUT OF THE OLD HABIT.
VOTE FOR SOMETHING NEW, A BETTER ECONOMY , BETTER HEALTH CARE, NO MORE WAR, SOMEONE YOUNG WITH NEW IDEAS, NOT A WITHERED OLD TREE, VOTE OBAMA.
TIME TO VOTE AWAY FROM THE GOOD OLD LIES........ A VOTE FOR MACSHAME IS A VOTE FOR KEEPING THE LIES ALIVE, BREAK OUT OF THE OLD HABIT.
VOTE FOR SOMETHING NEW, A BETTER ECONOMY , BETTER HEALTH CARE, NO MORE WAR, SOMEONE YOUNG WITH NEW IDEAS, NOT A WITHERED OLD TREE, VOTE OBAMA.
Posted by tootall10142 at 09:01 AM : Jul 06, 2008
MY FRIEND, MOST SOUTHERNERS CAN''T DIFFERENTIATE THEIR WIVES FROM THEIR GRANDMA, NOR THEIR SHEEP FROM THEIR LOVERS, HOW DO YOU THINK THE BUSH''S AND THE MACSHAME''S WERE MADE? IT''S A REPUBLICAN THING, THAT''S WHY WE CALL IT A "RETARDED THING". THAT ALSO EXPLAINS THE WEBBED HANDS AND THE IRAQ WAR.
1. First, _yellowcake_ is a uranium concentrate obtained from leach solutions (heavy metal). It is NON-WEAPONIZABLE ------ unless enriched thru costly, gas centrifuge and other means.
2. Conversely, WMD refers to nuclear, biological, chemical and radiological weapons. The fact remains about WMD: None were found. But, in the run up to Iraq, Bush and Cheney did lie, repeatedly and indisputably, about WMD. Whats more, Bush himself has publicly admitted Iraq had no links to either 911 or al Qaeda: Iraq was based upon lies and agitprop
3. The yellowcake was no mystery: U.N. inspectors have known about it since BEFORE the 1991 Gulf War. Its removal was primarily based on environmental concerns.
4. There was no evidence of any yellowcake dating from after 1991, the official said.
Patty-cake, yellowcake -------- where are your brains?
Posted by psy_war at 06:18 AM : Jul 06, 2008
WE NEED TO BAN HEAVY METALS LIKE MERCURY AND LEAD!!!
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