A U.S. Defense Department team Saturday found that the Baghdad Nuclear Research Facility, a site associated with Iraq’s former nuclear weapons efforts, had been heavily looted, according to the Washington Post (see GSN, May 2).

The team, consisting of eight nuclear experts from the Pentagon’s Direct Support Team, said it was impossible to determine if nuclear materials were missing from the site, which stored radioactive industrial and medical wastes, as well as spent nuclear fuel.  While the materials stored at the site could not be used to produce nuclear weapons, many could be used to create “dirty bombs,” the Post reported.  One team member said the quantities of materials discovered at the site during a survey would not suffice to build such a weapon, but other team members said they were unsure if the survey was even complete.

Iraqis claiming to be employees of the site had been entering the facility for more than two weeks before the Pentagon team conducted its survey, according to the Post.  A security detachment from the U.S. Army’s 3rd Division, which had been stationed to the guard the site, did not have an Arabic speaker present and could not confirm the Iraqis’ stories.  In addition, looters had been at work inside the site since U.S. troops took control, with up to 400 looters per day at its peak, the Post reported.  Last week, U.S. forces captured more than 60 looters, but many more were able to escape.

“Looters, they see us in Bradleys or on foot,” said Capt. Blaine Kusterle.  “They can outrun us easily because they have a 300-meter start,” he said.

Security also remains a concern at the nearby Tuwaitha complex, the main site in Iraq’s former nuclear program, according to the Post (see GSN, April 25).  The site had been previously found to be looted, but the United States does not know exactly what is missing at this site because of a dispute with the International Atomic Energy Agency.  Bush administration officials said Saturday that they expect to involve the IAEA at some point, because the radioactive materials stored at the Tuwaitha site are under the agency’s seals, which the United States is obligated to respect.  The U.S. State Department and the Pentagon are still working to create guidelines for a U.S. team to conduct a preliminary survey of the site.

“It’s very distressing,” said a nuclear expert with close ties to IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei.  The agency “expects measures to be taken so that the looting that took place a month ago will not continue to take place this month.  This material really should not be moved,” the expert said (Barton Gellman, Washington Post, May 3).

Iraqi Scientists

Meanwhile, several former senior Iraqi WMD scientists have recently called former U.N. inspectors within the United States to request guidance on whether they should surrender to U.S. forces and how they should do so, inspectors said.

The scientists, who include two former senior nuclear weapons scientists, have said they can provide documents and other information to assist in the investigation into Iraq’s efforts to obtain WMD-related equipment and materials from Germany and other countries, according to the Los Angeles Times.

U.S.-operated radio in Iraq has urged scientists to come forward, pledging that “anyone who provides information regarding weapons programs will be treated with respect and dignity.”  Some leading Iraqi scientists, however, remain unconvinced that they will be treated well by U.S. forces, according to former U.N. inspectors.

“They want some kind of assurance that they won’t be detained,” said David Albright, a former inspector who said he has received calls from several Iraqi nuclear scientists.

Albright said that all of the scientists he has talked to have said that ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ended his nuclear weapons program after the 1991 Gulf War and that no one knew if Iraq had maintained other WMD programs.  It is unclear if the scientists were telling the truth or just looking to make some kind of deal with the United States, Albright said, adding that he had told the scientists to come forward.

“They come from a society where if you’re going to be detained, that means something different than it does to us,” Albright added.  “It really does scare them,” he said (Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times, May 5).

U.S. Officials Confident Banned Weapons Will be Found

U.S. President George W. Bush has expressed confidence that the United States will find evidence of Iraqi WMD efforts, saying it was only a “matter of time” before U.S. forces do so.

“Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” Bush said.  “It’s well known,” he said (BBC News, May 4).

Other senior White House officials yesterday expressed a similar confidence, according to Agence France-Presse. 

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said U.S. forces would be able to find evidence of Iraqi WMD with the aid of Iraqi prisoners, especially lower-level officials.

“We’re going to have to find people not at the very senior level, who are vulnerable, obviously, if they’re in custody, but it will be people down below who had been involved in one way or another,” Rumsfeld said.

U.S. Secretary of Sate Colin Powell said that while U.S. troops will probably not find an actual Iraqi nuclear weapon, they would find evidence of Iraq’s nuclear weapons program.

“We haven’t found any evidence of nuclear weapons in Iraq as a result of what we have been able to see thus far.  But a program is more than just a weapon,” Powell said.  “We didn’t think he had a weapon.  But he kept in place the infrastructure, and he never lost the infrastructure or the brain power assembled in a way to use that infrastructure, if he was ever given a chance to do so,” he said (Agence France-Presse, May 5).

About Newswire  |  Contact National Journal  |  Re-Use Guidelines

HOME  |  CONTACT US  |  GET INVOLVED  |  SITE MAP

Back to top