Re: [OpenHeroQuest] Vote RRRRRRRRRRRRR !!!!!!!!!

From: Julian Lord <jlord_at_wGJp6J2GiSyXFk3DvwlBk2GgLdt1hdEi3y_nSu-QJ9fxY9k2OWkFl2syIbaHzq9LN8M7Mg>
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 13:22:19 +0200


Peter :

> In part it rests upon an Iraqi trade delegation visiting Niger. Niger has
> only two exports of note: agricultural produce and uranium.

But yellowcake is low-grade uranium which can basically only be used for two purposes : military armour plating, and civilian nuclear programmes. IIRC it has traces of weapons-grade isotopes, but to extract them would require some sort of huge uranium enrichment programme like North Korea's which would be simply _impossible_ to hide under any circumstances (the process is highly radioactive and would be infallibly detected by spy satellites etc).

It also requires specific nuclear facilities that Iraq didn't possess (they dismantled the ones they did have).

It would also require massive government spending, and it would have taken about 5-10 years for Iraq to have a sufficient numbers of spent fuel rods to start making weapons.

No evidence that they were stockpiling any such fissile material has emerged.

No hidden fissile material has been discovered AFAIK

The yellowcake claim is, esssentially, just another goddamn lie.

> >The IAEA have stated that Britain has not made any additional
> >evidence available to it.
>
> Simply because the documentary evidence is the property of
> a third party intelligence agency which cannot be made available
> to anybody else without their consent.

ie the French ? Who were against the war ?

Or is this just more pixie dust ?

> >Which ones?
>
> Palestinian groups.

Oh please.

The "Occupied Territories" are actually parts of the Kingdom of Jordan and Syria that Israel is treating like legitimately conquered territory.

So, are these people "terrorists" or "Resistance fighters" ?

Still, I suppose that the routine assassinations by the Israelis of Palestinian leaders are perfectly OK.

If supporting the Palestinians makes you a "terrorist", then _all_ arab nations support "terrorism".

This doctrine is a recipe for disaster, both diplomatic and security-related.

> >What evidence?
>
> Iraq openly paid large sums of money to families of suicide bombers
> and has been a refuge for some terrorists, notably Abu Nidal.

This, however, is _true_.

> >Look, the discussion started with a claim that Bush never said that Iraq
> >was an imminent threat to America.
>
> Which is true.

Only if America = Israel, which I suppose it does ... :-(

> The discovery of violations of UN resolutions before and after
> the war only confirms that Saddam never had any intention
> of complying fully with them.

That's probably true, but we were still lied to, and a more diplomatically acceptable casus belli should have been proposed instead of this ridiculously sexed-up waffle.

> > and no means of using them against America even if it did is a
> >seperate argument entirely.
>
> I remember the days when everybody believed that Afghanistan
> had no means of reaching the US.

There's no doubt however that these threats must be fought against.

Unfortunately, I can think of no magic method to acheive that goal ...

:-(

:-(

:-(

Julian Lord            

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