The American Spectator

The Spectacle Blog

Satisfying to see the leader in the Washington Times this news cycle feature Bill Tierney and intelligencesummit.org.

The WashTimes was especially taken with that startling detail in one of the translations from hundred of hours of recorded conversations between Saddam and his staff that "plasma" technology was a major focus as recently as five years ago.

"One new piece of information revealed on the tapes, released Saturday by Mr. Tierney at the Intelligence Summit, a private conference held in Arlington, is that Saddam was actively working on a plan to enrich uranium using a technique known as plasma separation. This is particularly worrisome because of the date of the conversation: It took place in 2000, nearly five years after Iraq's nuclear programs were thought to have stopped.

"Perhaps most disturbing of all, according to Mr. Tierney, was the fact that the Iraqi scientists briefing Saddam about the uranium enrichment plan in 2000 'were totally unknown' to U.N. weapons inspectors. The plasma program also appears to have escaped the attention of the Iraq Survey Group, which reported two years ago that it had ended back in the late 1980s."

Mention to those of you who remain winningly skittish about the merits of Tierney's and his colleague John Loftus's work, that there is a steep learning curve here for all of us amateur sleuths. Join in.

topics:
Iraq