Iraq Violence Even Lower

[BigRob]

"Violence is down to its lowest level since the spring of 2004, and we're now in our third consecutive month with reduced violence levels holding steady," Bush said.

Troop reductions this year could continue if security holds, he said, and he announced that Army troops newly deployed to Iraq would serve 12 months instead of 15, starting Friday.

CNN Story

FOX Story

Interesting choice of headlines for each to note as well.

An Associated Press tally shows at least 510 Iraqi civilians and security force members were killed in July, a 75 percent drop from the 2,021 deaths in the same period last year as the U.S. troop buildup aimed at quelling rampant Sunni-Shiite violence was nearing its peak.

 

[Pandora]

CNN Story

FOX Story

Interesting choice of headlines for each to note as well.

This is so nice to hear.


Hey question for you. A friend of mine told me they found that yellowcake in Iraq, I forget how many tons. I have not heard this in the mainstream news, was my friend pulling my leg, if not where can I find the story?

 

[BigRob]

This is so nice to hear.


Hey question for you. A friend of mine told me they found that yellowcake in Iraq, I forget how many tons. I have not heard this in the mainstream news, was my friend pulling my leg, if not where can I find the story?

Yes, Yellowcake was found in Iraq. At the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex, right around Baghdad.

Around 550 metric tons were removed.

While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called "dirty bomb" - a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive material - it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast. Yellowcake also can be enriched for use in reactors and, at higher levels, nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment.

So the fear is that it could be smuggled into Iran.
CBS Story

 

[Bunz]

I spent my summer hip deep in salmon, and learning just how things were and are on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
I am much more optomistic about Iraq now, since I lost faith in 2005. There is a lot of work to be done. But there is nothing I want more in the world than a peaceful Iraq. Although I spent my summer hip deep
George Bush and the cronies had an incredible opportunity there, and screwed up so monumentally. Its a shame it had to come to this. Hopefully Obama will bring in Biden on the ticket and clean up the fiasco Bush created. I cant wait until he is gone.

 

[Pandora]

Yes, Yellowcake was found in Iraq. At the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex, right around Baghdad.

Around 550 metric tons were removed.



So the fear is that it could be smuggled into Iran.
CBS Story

Thank you for the link,

Now I am wondering why is it that no one is talking about it. Bush and co. took a whole lot of heat for saying there was yellowcake, They were all flat out called liars and worse. Books were written about the yellowcake "lies". Where are the apoligies? Why is the news not talking about this. Why is there no links on this house of politics site.

Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame should go to prison! and all of the people who called Bush and his admin. liars should say they are sorry, perhaps write Mr. Bush a letter saying they are very sorry for spreading lies.

 

[BigRob]

Thank you for the link,

Now I am wondering why is it that no one is talking about it. Bush and co. took a whole lot of heat for saying there was yellowcake, They were all flat out called liars and worse. Books were written about the yellowcake "lies". Where are the apoligies? Why is the news not talking about this. Why is there no links on this house of politics site.

Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame should go to prison! and all of the people who called Bush and his admin. liars should say they are sorry, perhaps write Mr. Bush a letter saying they are very sorry for spreading lies.

Well, I think part of why this is not the "smoking gun" was because this yellowcake was already known about by the IAEA and the inspectors. It was kept under a seal, but it begs the question why would they allow this to remain there?

The IAEA placed a seal on the nuclear materials in November of 1992. From then until the fall of Saddam, the agency attempted to make sure that Iraq did not use the yellow cake to reconstitute its nuclear program, something the IAEA acknowledged could be done if the Iraqis were able to rebuild its centrifuges and gain access to additional fissile material. Keeping track of the material was made extraordinarily difficult by the Iraqis who regularly impeded IAEA officials from carrying out even the most routine inspections.

Flash forward to 1999 when British intelligence found out through multiple sources that representatives of the Iraqi government had met with officials from the Niger government.

This fact is not in dispute. The mystery is in what they talked about. A memo obtained by the British — later proven to be a forgery — purported to show the Iraqis were interested in purchasing 500 tons of yellow cake uranium from Niger's mines.

Also, the stuff had been diluted in Russia to make it less potent.

Both the Butler Review and the Senate Select Committee on Pre War Iraq Intelligence (SSCI) point to other efforts by Saddam to purchase uranium, most notably from the Democratic Republic of the Congo . The Butler Review states in 2002 the CIA 'agreed that there was evidence that [uranium from Africa] had been sought.

This was the context that Ambassador Wilson was sent to Niger. I do not think there was anyone trying to "fix" intelligence or anything like that.