update – fixed the link

The existence of the Iraqi nuclear program into the 1990’s is not much in dispute since Saddam’s son-in-law Hussein Kamal defected in 1994-5 and finally exposed the program to the UN inspectors who had missed its existence for years since the end of the first Gulf War. But recently publishd Iraqi documents do point to a highly capable nuclear program which was apparently quite extensive. In this extremely long document (which was translated into phonic-English) there are references to highly complex elements that demonstrate a sophistication I was not aware of in terms of materials processing. The materials are critical to state-of-the-art nuclear technology. The disturbing part is the fact these revelations come in reports of these materials being sold on the black market. The date on the Top Secret document is 12/12/1993. This section of the document discusses the theft of Niobium and Zirconium at the Latifyah facility south of Baghdad.

A. engineer atia abd al kathm grboo had assign from his company(abn al atheer building) followed to project(BC3) to count the material that belong to the project in al lateffia (instead location) during inventory he confiscated (1750)gram of (nobium) and (zerkotum) material.

The phenotic spelling through me off at first, until I realized what was going on. Zirconium and Niobium are used in nuclear reactors and other nuclear processes. They are not easy to process from raw materials as the links discuss. One use of these elements is together in an alloy used for nuclear fuel rods. This use of the material is confirmed in the report itself:

5. The material (zarkonium) and (al nobum) would be returned to the nuclear plant after finial input decision from the special court.

Emphasis mine. So the material was part of a nuclear plant in Latifiyah, Iraq in 1993. But the information to date on Latifiyah is it was (a) bombed heavily in 1991 all but destroying it and (b) it was a Bio-weapons plant – not a nuclear plant. This apparent disparity could be resolved if the nuclear plant was deep underground under the cover of the bio-weapons facilities. Pure speculation on my part. To knock down my own speculation, the Latifiyah site is referred to as the ‘instead location’ which could be a referrence to a hidden storage location only. But that does not change the referral to ‘the nuclear plant’.

In any event, the picture presented here is of a large effort, apparently not panicking over some theft of key materials. The fact the response to these thefts was fines and not much else shows an amazing llack of concern for the lost materials and the possible exposure at this time in the UN investigations. More Later if time permits