Yellowcake in Rotterdam Harbor May Be From Iraq

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — A recycling company found uranium oxide -- a radioactive material also known as yellowcake -- in a shipment of scrap steel it believes originally came from Iraq , the company said Thursday."

Nuclear experts say that although not highly radioactive, uranium oxide can be processed into enriched uranium usable in a nuclear weapon -- but highly advanced technology is needed.

Experts said that around 2 pounds of yellowcake, the amount found, would not be useful for either a bomb or fuel.

...he said there was no obvious non-nuclear industrial use for yellowcake and it would be strange to find it in random scrap metal.

Fox: Tests on Iraqi Shells Find No Chemical Agent

Mortar shells found in southern Iraq by the Danish military do not appear to contain chemical weapon agents as originally suspected, Fox News has learned.

"Some Iraqis have told Danish soldiers that other mortar shells were buried in the area, including a stockpile dumped in the Tigris River that could contain as many as 400 rounds," Gruenberger said.

NY Times: Hussein Warned Iraqis to Beware Outside Fighters, Document Says

Saddam Hussein warned his Iraqi supporters to be wary of joining forces with foreign Arab fighters entering Iraq to battle American troops, according to a document found with the former Iraqi leader when he was captured, Bush administration officials said Tuesday.

C.I.A. interrogators have already elicited from the top Qaeda officials in custody that, before the American-led invasion, Osama bin Laden had rejected entreaties from some of his lieutenants to work jointly with Mr. Hussein.

At the Pentagon, several officials believed that Iraq and Al Qaeda had found common ground in their hatred of the United States, while at the C.I.A., many analysts believed that Mr. bin Laden saw Mr. Hussein as one of the corrupt secular Arab leaders who should be toppled.

US Tests Old Iraq Shells For Chemical

Fourteen members of the Iraqi Survey Group, made up of intelligence analysts, interrogators and translators, will be testing the 120mm shells with a mobile laboratory at the Iraqi site over the next few days, Maj. Kim Gruenberger of the Danish Army Operational Command told The Associated Press.

They have been working since this morning," Gruenberger, who spoke from the Danish army's command center in Karup, 165 miles northwest of Copenhagen. He couldn't say when the results would be available.

Danish troops and Icelandic de-miners uncovered the shells Friday after receiving tips from local residents near Qurnah, north of the city of Basra, where Denmark's 410 soldiers are based.

Preliminary tests on the plastic-wrapped but damaged shells showed they contained a liquid blister agent. But initial tests by field troops are designed to favor a positive reading, erring on the side of caution to protect soldiers. More sophisticated tests are often necessary. Some Iraqis have told Danish soldiers that other mortar shells were buried in the area, including a stockpile dumped in the Tigris River that could contain as many as 400 rounds, Gruenberger said.

Slate: Liberal Hawks Reconsider the Iraq War

With the benefit of hindsight, do you still believe that the United States should have invaded Iraq in March 2003?

Weekly Standard: Cheney V. Powell - The vice president and the secretary of State appear to have conflicting opinions of the Iraq-al Qaeda connection

"I have not seen smoking-gun, concrete evidence about the connection. But I think the possibility of such connections did exist, and it was prudent to consider them at the time that we did."

"That was Secretary of State Colin Powell last Thursday. It was a curious comment, given that the administration had made an Iraq-al Qaeda connection an important, if ancillary, part of its case for war in Iraq. In fact, Powell himself had laid out some of the "concrete evidence" of the Iraq-al Qaeda connection himself in a presentation at the United Nations Security Council on February 5, 2003."

"[in February 2003]...Powell was emphatic. "It's not that we are trying to find a connection between al Qaeda and Iraq. It's there. It's not something we're making up--it's there and we can't fail to take note of it or to talk about it or report it."

"[Cheney:] "I can give you a few quick for instances [of a general link between Al Qaida and Iraq] --one, the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. The main perpetrator was a man named Ramzi Yousef. He's now in prison in Colorado. His sidekick in the exercise was a man named Abdul Rahman Yasin . . . Ahman Rahman . . . Yasin is his last name anyway. I can't remember his earlier first names. He fled the United States after the attack, the 1993 attack, went to Iraq, and we know now based on documents that we've captured since we took Baghdad, that they put him on the payroll, gave him a monthly stipend and provided him with a house, sanctuary, in effect, in Iraq, in the aftermath of nine-ele . . . (sic) . . . the 93' attack on the World Trade Center."

"And you can look at Zarkawi, (Abu Mussab) al-Zarkawi, who is still out there operating today, who was an al-Qaida associate, who was wounded in Afghanistan, took refuge in Baghdad, working out of Baghdad, worked with the Ansar al Islam group up in northeastern Iraq, that produced a so-called poison factory, a group that we hit when we went into Iraq. They were involved in trying to smuggle things, manufacture and smuggle things like ricin into Europe to attack various targets in Europe with. He also, Zarkawi, was responsible for the assassination of a man named Foley, who worked for A.I.D. in Amman, Jordan, an American assigned over there."

"The links go back. We know for example from interrogating detainees in Guantanamo that al Qaida sent individuals to Baghdad to be trained in C.W. and B.W. technology, chemical and biological weapons technology. These are all matters that are there for anybody who wants to look at it. A lot of it has been declassified. More, I'm sure, will be declassified in the future, and my expectation would be as we get the time. We haven't really had the time yet to pore through all those records in Baghdad. We'll find ample evidence confirming the link--that is the connection, if you will, between al Qaida and the Iraqi intelligence services. They have worked together on a number of occasions."

Rocky Mountain News: Interview With Vice President Cheney

[The October 2002 Joint Intelligence Report] was the best information we had and I think the jury is still out in terms of how extensive a program Saddam Hussein had. We know he had had an extensive one in the past. We know he had produced, used chemical weapons. We know he had a robust nuclear program. We found that when we got in there after the '91 war. And the reporting that we had prior to the war this time around was all consistent with that -- basically said that he had a chemical, biological and nuclear program, and estimated that if he could acquire fissile material, he could have a nuclear weapon within a year or two. Based on that there wasn't any way the administration could ignore those findings of the intelligence community in terms of thinking about the threat that Saddam Hussein represented.

With respect to the other question, the general relationship [between Iraq and Al Qaida], I would refer you...There are several places you can go. One place you ought to go look is an article that Stephen Hayes did in the Weekly Standard here a few weeks ago, that goes through and lays out in some detail, based on an assessment that was done by the Department of Defense and forwarded to the Senate Intelligence Committee some weeks ago. That's your best source of information.

ChronWatch.com: "Syrian Journalist Reports Iraq's WMD Hidden In Syria" - by Dr. Steven Plaut

This report is from 2LA.org, is by Nizar Najoef, a senior Syrian journalist who defected from Syria to Western Europe. Nizar Najoef, a Syrian journalist who recently defected from Syria to Western Europe and is known for bravely challenging the Syrian regime, said in a letter Monday, January 5, to Dutch newspaper “De Telegraaf,” that he knows the three sites where Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) are kept. The storage places are:

-1- Tunnels dug under the town of al-Baida near the city of Hama in northern Syria. These tunnels are an integral part of an underground factory, built by the North Koreans, for producing Syrian Scud missiles. Iraqi chemical weapons and long-range missiles are stored in these tunnels.

-2- The village of Tal Snan, north of the town of Salamija, where there is a big Syrian airforce camp. Vital parts of Iraq's WMD are stored there.

-3-. The city of Sjinsjar on the Syrian border with the Lebanon, south of the city Homs.

Najoef writes that the transfer of Iraqi WMD to Syria was organized by the commanders of Saddam Hussein's Special Republican Guard, including General Shalish, with the help of Assif Shoakat , Bashar Assad's cousin. Shoakat is the CEO of Bhaha, an import/export company owned by the Assad family. In February 2003, a month before America's invasion in Iraq, very few are aware about the efforts to bring them from Iraq to Syria, and the personal involvement of Bashar Assad and his family in the operation. Najoef, who has won prizes for journalistic integrity, says he wrote his letter because he has terminal cancer.

Click here for Satellite Images of the Syrian WMD Locations.

CNN: Blair Defiant On Missing Iraqi WMD

Blair acknowledged Sunday the concern of critics that no illicit arsenal of weapons had yet been found, but said that weapons inspectors had found extensive evidence of clandestine operations and concealment operations.

Telegraph: Troops Find 'Chemical Weapons' Near Basra

British officials were called in yesterday to test a batch of liquid-filled mortar bombs found hidden in southern Iraq to discover if they could be chemical weapons.

Ali Nimir, a former colonel in a Republican Guard artillery unit, said: "I remember seeing boxes of these kinds of armaments in our base two years ago. We were told that they were chemical weapons."

"They made a splashing sound inside if you moved them around. From what I recall they were removed from our bases and distributed to secret hiding places around the country about a year before the war. I never saw them again."

NewsMax: Multiple Tests Confirming Iraq WMD Send Media Into Deep Spin

Mulitple tests conducted in Iraq by Danish and British experts indicate that Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction have finally been discovered, but mainstream news editors either ignored the story Sunday morning or are furiously spinning the news as inconsequential.

Reuters: Weapons found in Basra likely chemical - By Fiona O'Brien

Initial tests indicate blister gas present: BAGHDAD—Danish troops have found dozens of mortar rounds buried in Iraq which chemical weapons tests show could contain blister gas, the Danish army said yesterday. The initial tests, which have yet to be confirmed, were taken after Danish troops found 36 120-mm mortar rounds on Friday hidden in southern Iraq. The Danish army said the rounds had been buried for at least 10 years. "All the instruments showed indications of the same type of chemical compound, namely blister gas," the Danish Army operational command said on its Web site. "However, this will not be confirmed until the final tests are available," it said in a statement after the initial examination of liquid leaking from the weapons. Results of final tests were likely to be ready in about two days. Blister gas, an illegal weapon that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein said he had destroyed, was extensively used against the Iranians during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. Mustard gas, one of the best known of the blister agents, can remain toxic in the soil for decades. Although it can kill if it enters the lungs, blister gas is used mainly to weaken infantry by making the skin break out in excruciatingly painful blisters. Four different types of instrument were used on three of the mortar rounds, the army said in its statement, adding that 100 more rounds could be buried at the site north of Basra. Icelandic bomb specialists working with the Danish soldiers said the rounds had been found concealed in road construction, Iceland's Foreign Ministry said. It said a mobile U.S. chemical research laboratory has been sent to help.

CNN: Suspicious Shells Found In Southern Iraq

Danish troops have found suspicious mortar shells in southern Iraq that officials believe contain blister agents, the United States and Denmark announced Saturday. Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, a U.S. Army spokesman, said Saturday that the 120 mm mortars were filled with liquid. The shells are at least 10 years old, and a U.S. Army official said he suspects the ordnance was surplus from the Iran-Iraq war in the mid-1980s. Blister agents are used in chemical weapons. A release on the Danish army operational command Web site said that in a routine collection of old ammunition, the 36 heavy mortar grenades were found in a dried-up marsh Friday. They were buried and packed in plastic.

Both the U.S. and British governments cited the threat of illicit weapons of mass destruction as a main reason for launching the Iraq war. However, no such weapons have been found so far.

CNN: Cabinet Members Defend Bush from O'Neill

[No WMDs] have been found [in Iraq], although searches have turned up evidence of continuing research on banned weapons.

Washington Times: Iraqi Shells Tested For Gas

Four different types of instruments were used on three of the mortar rounds, the army said in its statement, adding that 100 more rounds could be buried at the site.

Associated Press - Rice: no evidence saddam moved WMD to Syria

"The United States has no credible evidence that Iraq moved weapons of mass destruction into Syria early last year before the U.S.-led war that drove Saddam Hussein from power, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said Friday.

"But I want to be very clear: we don't, at this point, have any indications that I would consider credible and firm that that has taken place, but we will tie down every lead,'' she said at a White House briefing about Bush's trip Monday to a hemispheric summit in Mexico.

"We're going to follow every lead on what may have happened here,'' Rice said. "I don't think we are at the point that we can make a judgment on this issue. There hasn't been any hard evidence that such a thing happened."

Scotsman.com: 'Saddam's Chemical Weapons Were Smuggled Out of Iraq' - By James Lyons

"Saddam Hussein’s chemical and biological weapons were smuggled out of Iraq, a leading Syrian dissident claimed tonight. His weapons of mass destruction were hidden at three sites in Syria, said human rights campaigner Nijar Nijjof, who is now based in Paris. They were pin-pointed by a senior source inside Syrian Military Intelligence, Mr Nijjof told Channel Five News. The source revealed weapons were smuggled across the border in ambulances in the months before war, he said. “I knew this man during the last two years, he sent me much information,” said Mr Nijjof. “I discovered all his information was exactly 100% accurate or at least 90%.” The claims follow Syrian President Bashar Assad’s rejection of calls to renounce weapons of mass destruction in an interview published yesterday.

N.Y. TIMES: U.S. Withdraws a Team of Weapons Hunters From Iraq, By Douglas Jehl

The Bush administration has quietly withdrawn from Iraq a 400-member military team whose job was to scour the country for military equipment, according to senior government officials. The step was described by some military officials as a sign that the administration might have lowered its sights and no longer expected to uncover the caches of chemical and biological weapons that the White House cited as a principal reason for going to war last March. A separate military team that specializes in disposing of chemical and biological weapons remains part of the 1,400-member Iraq Survey Group, which has been searching Iraq for more that seven months at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. But that team is "still waiting for something to dispose of," said a survey group member.

Some of the government officials said the most important evidence from the weapons hunt might be contained in a vast collection of seized Iraqi documents being stored in a secret military warehouse in Qatar. Only a small fraction have been translated. The search for Iraqi weapons remains "the primary focus" of the survey group, a senior Defense Department official said. But he acknowledged that most of the dozens of new linguists and intelligence analysts to join the team had recently been given assignments related to combating the Iraqi insurgency rather than to the weapons search.

The cache of Iraqi documents cover subjects extending far beyond illicit weapons, according to senior military officials, and are so voluminous that, if stacked, they would rise 10 miles high, according to estimates by senior government officials. The warehouse in Qatar has become the center of work by the Defense Intelligence Agency to translate and analyze the documents, the officials said.

CNN: Powell on WMD existence: 'This game is still unfolding'

Secretary of State Colin Powell Thursday defended the Bush administration's position that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction programs and defended his speech on the matter to the United Nations last February. "This game is still unfolding," he told reporters.

He was responding to a study that found Iraq had ended its programs by the mid-1990s and did not pose an immediate threat to the United States before the 2003 war. Powell said he had not read the report but read news reports about it. The study, released Thursday, was conducted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a nonpartisan, respected group that opposed the war in Iraq.

The United States used the threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction as a justification for launching the war against the regime of Saddam Hussein, according to the report. The report follows a nine-month search in Iraq for WMD -- nuclear, biological and chemical -- the key reason the administration cited in its decision to invade Iraq.

In this article, CNN shortened Secretary Powell's "That's a fact" statement, extended here: "The fact of the matter is Iraq did have weapons of mass destruction and programs for weapons of mass destruction and used weapons of mass destruction against Iran and against their own people. That's a fact," he added.

The secretary of state also said that his presentation to the United Nations last year made it clear that "we had seen some links and connections" between Iraq and terror groups "over time." "I have not seen smoking gun concrete evidence about the connection, but I think the possibility of some connections did exist and was prudent to consider them at the time that we did."

"We found nothing," the Canegie Study author Joseph Cirincione said. "There are no large stockpiles of weapons. There hasn't actually been a find of a single weapon, a single weapons agent, nothing like the programs that the administration believe existed."

Carnegie Endowment for Internatinal Peace: WMD In Iraq - Evidence and Implications (pdf)

This new study by Joseph Cirincione, Jessica T. Mathews and George Perkovich outlines policy reforms to improve threat assessments, deter transfer of WMD to terrorists, strengthen the UN weapons inspection process, and avoid politicization of the intelligence process.