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IRAQ could produce nuclear weapons within months using pirated German equipment and uranium smuggled from Brazil, according to a dissident Iraqi nuclear scientist.
The revelations painting an alarming picture of President Saddam Hussein’s nuclear capabilities came as the White House made its strongest link yet between Saddam and al-Qaeda, and demanded a United Nations resolution as soon as this week.
Dr Khidir Hamza, who was science adviser to the Atomic Energy Establishment and later helped to start and direct Iraq’s nuclear bomb programme before he defected in 1994, claims in an interview with The Times today that Saddam could be in a position to make three nuclear weapons within the next few months, if he has not already done so.
Dr Hamza gave warning that UN inspectors would be useless because even if they were given “unfettered access” they would find it far more difficult than before to detect the nuclear assembly line. “The beauty of the present system is that the units are each very small and in the four years since the inspectors left they will have been concealed underground or in basements or buildings that outwardly seem normal,” Dr Hamza said.
Dr Hamza gave evidence before Senator Joe Biden’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on Iraq in Washington last August but it was only after the recent International Institute for Strategic Studies report on the threat from Saddam that he became aware of the West’s imperfect understanding of the urgency of the situation.
Dr Hamza’s new estimation of the speed with which a nuclear bomb could be produced is centred on the number of pirated centrifuges that Baghdad has been able to produce and the rapidity with which the re-processing programme is being undertaken. The scientist’s intelligence suggests a more immediate threat than reported last week by the IISS, which concluded that Iraq could make a bomb only if it smuggled in the necessary uranium or radioactive material.
According to Dr Hamza, that material is already inside Iraq and is currently being processed to weapons grade. He said that Iraq was using a centrifuge method to get a bomb which is easier and quicker than other methods. “Unless he’s stopped soon, Saddam will have set up a whole nuclear bomb industry, not just have made a couple of bombs,” Dr Hamza said.
The revelations painting an alarming picture of President Saddam Hussein’s nuclear capabilities came as the White House made its strongest link yet between Saddam and al-Qaeda, and demanded a United Nations resolution as soon as this week.
Dr Khidir Hamza, who was science adviser to the Atomic Energy Establishment and later helped to start and direct Iraq’s nuclear bomb programme before he defected in 1994, claims in an interview with The Times today that Saddam could be in a position to make three nuclear weapons within the next few months, if he has not already done so.
Dr Hamza gave warning that UN inspectors would be useless because even if they were given “unfettered access” they would find it far more difficult than before to detect the nuclear assembly line. “The beauty of the present system is that the units are each very small and in the four years since the inspectors left they will have been concealed underground or in basements or buildings that outwardly seem normal,” Dr Hamza said.
Dr Hamza gave evidence before Senator Joe Biden’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on Iraq in Washington last August but it was only after the recent International Institute for Strategic Studies report on the threat from Saddam that he became aware of the West’s imperfect understanding of the urgency of the situation.
Dr Hamza’s new estimation of the speed with which a nuclear bomb could be produced is centred on the number of pirated centrifuges that Baghdad has been able to produce and the rapidity with which the re-processing programme is being undertaken. The scientist’s intelligence suggests a more immediate threat than reported last week by the IISS, which concluded that Iraq could make a bomb only if it smuggled in the necessary uranium or radioactive material.
According to Dr Hamza, that material is already inside Iraq and is currently being processed to weapons grade. He said that Iraq was using a centrifuge method to get a bomb which is easier and quicker than other methods. “Unless he’s stopped soon, Saddam will have set up a whole nuclear bomb industry, not just have made a couple of bombs,” Dr Hamza said.
I think it's absurd to jump to such conclusions : any dictator want power, and doesn't want to die in the process of destroying everything. We're not dealing with a mad scientist from a bad Disney's flick here.
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