Okay, this just in. Does it count as WMD?
I didn't think Iraq was supposed to hav any nuclear program?
"U.S. recovered more than 100 barrels from around looted Iraqi nuclear site
By Matt Kelley, Associated Press, 6/5/2003 11:31
WASHINGTON (AP) American forces have gathered more than 100 metal barrels and five radiological devices which Iraqis may have looted from the country's largest nuclear storage site, Pentagon officails said Thursday.
None of the people who turned in the contraband for rewards of $3 showed any more than background levels of radiation, the military officials said. And none of the equipment was emitting more radiation than slightly above background levels, they said.
But American officials still aren't sure what else may have been stolen from the Tuwaitha nuclear complex during the war, said three top military and Defense Department officials who briefed reporters on the issue on condition they not be named.
Iraq stored tons of uranium and other radioactive materials at ''Site C,'' a complex of three buildings at Tuwaitha surrounded by a 12-foot fence and concrete barrier. When U.S. Marines arrived there April 7, the front gate was open and the rear wall was breached. Inside, some radioactive material was scattered around and it was clear the site had been looted.
Local Iraqis later told the Americans that the Iraqi soldiers guarding Tuwaitha left on March 10, before the war started, and civilian guards abandoned the site March 20, the day before American ground forces entered Iraq from Kuwait.
U.S. forces doing an inventory of Site C found more there than they expected, the officials said. They said they don't know whether that means the U.S. expectations were inaccurate, if Iraq moved more radioactive material there before the war or something else was happening.
The Pentagon officials said they were still concerned that some radioactive material could have been stolen from the site, but they could not know for sure until a complete inventory could be taken.
The looting has raised the possiblity that terrorist groups could have obtained material for a radiological ''dirty bomb'' from the site. None of the material at Tuwaitha was of high enough quality to make a nuclear bomb, but some of the material could be teamed with conventional explosives to spew low levels of radioactivity over a relatively large area.
A seven-member team from the International Atomic Energy Agency is scheduled to arrive at Tuwaitha Saturday to begin assessing what material is there and what may have been stolen. The IAEA a United Nations agency had sealed and monitored the storage site for years to enforce the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
The United States agreed to let the IAEA team visit the Tuwaitha site only after repeated pleas from IAEA director Mohammed ElBaradei. The top Pentagon officials said the IAEA visit did not set a precedent for other U.N. weapons inspectors to return to Iraq.
''The U.S. has the resources to handle the disarmament of Iraq and other tasks,'' said one official in the Pentagon's policy-making office.
His boss, who also spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, said the main American worry was for the safety of U.N. workers. U.S. troops will provide security for the IAEA team and accompany them wherever they go, this official said.
Some people in the villages surrounding the Tuwaitha site have complained of health problems they blame on radiation exposure. At least some of the barrels looted from the site which had been used to store uranium were emptied and used to store drinking water.
The Pentagon is sending a medical team to the area to investigate any health effects of the looting. The team should arrive next week, and will study people living within a three-mile radius of Site C, the Pentagon officials said.
The United States also is training a 100-man Iraqi security force to guard the facility once the Americans leave, the Pentagon officials said."
