Iraq has the bomb

Geschrieben von Pascal am 30. Januar 2001 07:28:58:

Defector Tells Newspaper of Two Iraqi Nukes
NewsMax.com Wires
Monday, Jan. 29, 2001
LONDON – A military engineer who fled the country more than a year ago says Saddam Hussein has completed two fully operational nuclear bombs, and international nuclear officials are investigating the evidence, the Telegraph newspaper reported Sunday. The engineer, now in hiding, said he helped oversee completion of the Iraqi weapons program.
Withholding the defector's name "for security reasons," the newspaper said the two bombs were put together in a factory rebuilt after British and American forces bombed it in 1998, part of a network of 64 factories now involved in the project.

The defector told the newspaper only a handful of people within the Iraqi government know all the details.

The newspaper said that a spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna is unable to confirm whether Saddam is complying with U.N. resolutions but that she is bringing the account of the defector to the attention of the agency immediately. "We want to investigate this as soon as possible," the IAEA's Melissa Fleming told the newspaper.

The newspaper said Iraqi scientists resumed their efforts to build nuclear weapons as soon as U.N. Special Commission inspectors were forced to leave in November 1998.

"There are at least two nuclear bombs which are ready for use," the defector told the Telegraph.

The Hemrin area in northeastern Iraq is near the Iranian border, a well-guarded area that is under control of a nuclear energy organization shrouded in secrecy, with a chain of command that leads to Saddam's closest aide, Abed Hmoud, the newspaper said.

(C) 2001 UPI All Rights Reserved.



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