The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium - reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.

The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" - the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment - was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.

What's now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles south of Baghdad - using teams that include Iraqi experts recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.

"Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq," said a senior U.S. official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

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Did it have "Made in Nigeria" stamped on it?

I think you know that already though. Its nowhere close to a smoking gun.

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Of course not, Hussein just liked the looks of it and collected it.

A group of allied countries take extraordinary steps to secretly move some potentially very dangerous material from the possible grasp of terrorist and Liberals say, "that's old news and not a smoking gun".

Who the fuck is looking for smoking guns; our military has been facing "smoking guns" for five years, now they face a new democracy, almost less violence than in New York City and not only has Al Qaeda virtually been defeated, this massive amount of yellowcake is now out of their grasp forever.

It's a clear victory !!!

It's somethig now that will NEVER be used to kill you or anyone you care about or anyone you don't care about.

BFD:

Did it have "Made in Nigeria" stamped on it?

No, stupid shit, it was from Betty Crocker. Is only Nigerian yellowcake potential poision?

That stock pile has been there for quite some time and may have been added to throughout the years. This very same yellow cake dump/storage site was looted shortly after our invasion. It wasn't the precious and fear inspiring yellow cake they came to steal. It was the drums which contained the yellow cake. They left the ore.

This was low grade uranium, it barely qualified as a source of radiation. Not even worthy enough to be carried away by looters and sold to the highest bidder.

If this cache of first stage process uranium ore was any real threat, why do you suppose it took them nearly 5 years after it's discovery to dispose of it? And now that they have finally gotten around to doing something we should cheer it as some huge secret undertaking and a major blow to nuclear terrorists. Its just old news with a fresh wrapper.

The_Watcher:

That stock pile has been there for quite some time and may have been added to throughout the years. This very same yellow cake dump/storage site was looted shortly after our invasion. It wasn't the precious and fear inspiring yellow cake they came to steal. It was the drums which contained the yellow cake. They left the ore.

This was low grade uranium, it barely qualified as a source of radiation. Not even worthy enough to be carried away by looters and sold to the highest bidder.

If this cache of first stage process uranium ore was any real threat, why do you suppose it took them nearly 5 years after it's discovery to dispose of it? And now that they have finally gotten around to doing something we should cheer it as some huge secret undertaking and a major blow to nuclear terrorists. Its just old news with a fresh wrapper.

Everything you say is opposite of the referenced article and you offer zero proof. They super secretely sold for many millions of dollars and secretely transported it around the world to further demonstrate it was worth nothing?

You don't know shit from shinola.

is about $135/ lb (US).

The 500 plus Tons of Yellowcake found in Iraq by the UN Inspectors obvious predated the US invasion and most likely prior to the invasion of Kuwait.

Ron

TickleBob:

The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium - reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.

The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" - the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment - was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.

What's now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles south of Baghdad - using teams that include Iraqi experts recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.

"Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq," said a senior U.S. official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

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"Israeli warplanes bombed a reactor project at the site in 1981. Later, U.N. inspectors documented and safeguarded the yellowcake, which had been stored in aging drums and containers since before the 1991 Gulf War. There was no evidence of any yellowcake dating from after 1991, the official said."

"U.S. and Iraqi forces have guarded the 23,000-acre site - surrounded by huge sand berms - following a wave of looting after Saddam's fall that included villagers toting away yellowcake storage barrels for use as drinking water cisterns."

Old Yellowcake

Even a Canadian official questioned the need for such secrecy.

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We sealed a deal on some uranium that's been no secret in Iraq for years, transported it secretly and scored a few million bucks. I just don't understand where anyone can see it as a victory or as something newly discovered that blows the lid off the Saddam yellow cake issue.

It was more like a victorious big buck sale rather than a victory against nuclear terrorism.

Maybe you cannot see it, but lots of people and news sources see if differently.

Check out what the news is saying about it.

Even your own source values the deal at many millions and you claimed it had zero value. You source does not name a "government official" but a watchdog group.

Learn a few things.

This ties in with the Bush adminsitration's Niger scandal. As you'll recall, the Bush adminsitration relied on a poorly forged letter and some wild speculation to assert that Iraq had tried to buy yellowcake from Niger (even after their own investigator had gone to Niger and reported back that there wasn't any supporting evidence). One of the reasons to question the assertion (aside from the lack of evidence to support it), was that Iraq didn't need yellowcake -- it already had 550 metric tons of the stuff.

It did have zero value to the looters, they passed it right by. Instead they took many other items, some of the items taken were quite contaminated and much more of a hazard than the radiation from the yellow cake alone.

If there was a market for it the looters would have carted it away back in 2003 when we weren't keeping an eye on this dump site. Of course that was 2003 and these were just simple insurgents doing the looting. The dirty or nuclear bomb type of global terrorists entered the scene a little later on when Bush invited them to battle us on Iraqi soil.

The al Qaeda group apparently does have an interest in things nuclear. We should have moved this stuff years ago when the danger of theft was much higher than it is now. This recent move on the yellow cake is more like securing the hen house long after the threat of a major fox attack had passed.

We should rejoice in the money made from the yellow cake sale and be happy about a long pending job that was finally finished after years of waiting. Declaring it a major victory is sort of a stretch. A victory over procrastination is more fitting of a claim. Really nothing to get the red, white and blue undies in a bunch over.

Lets just call it a long awaited job well done, no matter how brightly the media chooses to paint it.