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China-Japan-Koreas
North Korea ’sent uranium to Libya’
2004-05-23
The UN atomic agency is investigating reports that North Korea secretly sent uranium to Libya when Tripoli was trying to develop nuclear weapons. Diplomats quoted by The New York Times said the agency had found evidence that Pyongyang provided Libya with nearly two tons of uranium in early 2001.
Whoa Nellie! Who’d a thunk?
Libya handed over the uranium to the US in January this year, after deciding to abandon its quest for nuclear weapons. Pakistan’s former nuclear salesman chief AQ "Let’s Make a Nuclear Deal" Khan ran a huge secret nuclear black market. The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is stifling investigating various leads emerging from interviews with former members of Mr Khan’s network and their associates. IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky told BBC News Online that the investigation "spans three continents and involves entities or individuals in at least eight countries". He said the IAEA had not yet reached any conclusions about anything, ever the alleged North Korea connection. The newspaper said the uranium shipped to Libya could not be used as nuclear fuel unless it was enriched in centrifuges, which the Libyans were assembling as part of a $100m programme to purchase equipment from the Khan network. It quoted US officials as saying the discovery of a North Korean connection was an intelligence success springing directly from Libya’s decision to dismantle its nuclear weapons programme and the subsequent drive to smash the Khan network. Abdul Qadeer Khan has admitted selling nuclear secrets to every-f&%king-body Libya, Iran and North Korea. Intelligence services are trying to find out whether North Korea made similar clandestine sales to other countries or even terror groups.
Kim said he didn’t. What! That’s not good enough for you?
Actually, I think he said he didn't one day, he did the next day, he might have the day after that, and he was gonna the day after that...
According to the IAEA, Libya produced a small amount of plutonium - but not enough to make a bomb.
Well, this pretty much zeros out any faint wiggles on Kim’s credibility meter. Time to plant his @ss and quick.
Posted by:Zenster

#6  RW, I saw the same guy on Fox. I think the guy was John Loftus.

The story seems to go back all the way to 1995: Saddam Hussein, The Unrepentant

Loftus has been on the story for awhile. He gave a speech to Inspiration and Education: UJC Young Leadership Conference 2003: The biggest buzz of excitement caused at the conference by far was by a speaker called John Loftus. He has previously spoken at the UM campus before about Sami Al-Arian, the infamous University of South Florida professor now being indicted under terrorism charges. Loftus is a private attorney who works pro-bono to help hundreds of intelligence agents obtain lawful permission to declassify and publish sensitive and top-secret documents. He once held some of the highest security clearances in the world, with special access to NATO Cosmic, CIA code word, and Top Secret Nuclear Files. Loftus is the author of several books including "The Secret Wars Against the Jews" and is also the President of the St. Petersburg Holocaust Museum in Florida. All of this is quite extraordinary when you consider he is a nice Irish Catholic boy!

Loftus created such a stir because of his claims based on his supposed contacts in the intelligence community (he went on air with CBS in an interview after speaking to us to announce his assertions about Saddam Hussein). He maintained the following, believe it or no. It’s pretty fantastical, like a spy novel, but who knows!

First, he asserted that Saddam Hussein is dead, killed in that first surgical strike at dawn the day the war began. US Special Forces were on the ground in Baghdad before the onset of hostilities and were scouting out locations where they believed he might show up. At night they spotted what they thought was Saddam and his sons and some of their entourage going into a house with a large underground hidden bunker. They took pictures of them, particularly the ears (yes, the ears) as apparently they are the only part of the body that cannot be altered surgically. Intelligence verified it was truly them and missiles as well as a many tons of bunker busting bombs were dropped on the site. As you can imagine it would be impossible for any living thing to sustain such an assault.

Secondly, Loftus said that France's complicity in arms sales as well as Russia's is going to become shockingly clear (a fact that in regards to Russia is already coming true) He also mentioned that France has some $252 billion in contracts with Iraq over the next decade! When questioned about Saudi Arabia he alleged that many an ex-diplomat and analyst is on the Saudi "retirement" payroll. They are not given money while in office as this would constitute a bribe but there is a tacit understanding that they will be dealt with generously in their retirement.

Finally, Loftus maintained that US Intelligence and allied Intelligence have uncovered a massive collusion to produce and sell weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to terrorist groups. North Korea was to provide the raw material, Iraq the scientists and Libya the facilities. He asserted that Libya has been busy hallowing out a mountain (spy novel stuff again) to store and create WMD. This was the reason why Iraqi scientists were not available to be interviewed by inspectors, many were in Libya. Pretty fantastical stuff indeed but Loftus is a very engaging speaker and highly entertaining to boot!
Posted by: Super Hose   2004-05-23 10:28:43 PM  

#5  Any enterprizing reporters out there who would care to find out the details behind this?

When was the last time you saw a reporter chase after a story?

Seriously, if they're not spoon-fed a story by a source, they don't want to hear about it.
Posted by: Robert Crawford   2004-05-23 8:08:20 PM  

#4  It's almost like there was this "axis of evil" at work, for want of a better phrase.
Posted by: Matt   2004-05-23 3:17:42 PM  

#3  I heard about the Iraqi scientists in Libya a while ago, but wondered what had happened to that story. Any enterprizing reporters out there who would care to find out the details behind this? Or would the possibility that it might be true go against official media dogma?
Posted by: virginian   2004-05-23 3:10:17 PM  

#2  ...and makes it very difficult for thinking people to make jokes about WMD's and the proliferation thereof.

Too bad there aren't enough thinking people to go around.
Posted by: Phil Fraering   2004-05-23 12:54:31 PM  

#1  In spite of the general dismissal of the importance of Qadaffi's actions after the fall of Baghdad, it appears to be the biggest domino to fall. Libya provides a window into the belly of the beast and makes it very difficult for thinking people to make jokes about WMDs and the proliferation thereof.

Fox News just interviewed a man who said that the US knew before the invasion of Iraq that there was a massive presence of Iraqi nuclear scientists in Libya working on nuclear weapons.
Posted by: RWV   2004-05-23 11:38:49 AM  

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