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2023-03-17 Africa North
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Libyan military says it recovered 2.5 tons of uranium that IAEA reported missing
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[IsraelTimes] Commander says containers of uranium tracked down 3 miles from where they had been stored in southern Libya, hours after disappearance was reported by the UN’s nuclear watchdog
Some 2.5 tons of natural uranium
reported missing by the UN’s nuclear watchdog in war-scarred Libya have been found, a general in the country’s east said Thursday.
Continued from Page 2
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy, so it's kind of hard to describe him as a Qadaffy holdover. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all. Actually, he is, but slowly...
’s communications division, said the containers of uranium had been recovered "barely five kilometres (three miles)" from where they had been stored in southern Libya, and after the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported their disappearance earlier Thursday.
Natural uranium can’t immediately be used for energy production or bomb fuel, as the enrichment process typically requires the metal to be converted into a gas, then later spun in centrifuges to reach the levels needed.
However,
there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly...
each ton of natural uranium — if obtained by a group with the technological means and resources — can be refined to 5.6 kilograms (12 pounds) of weapons-grade material over time, experts say. That makes finding the missing metal important for nonproliferation experts.
In a statement, the Vienna-based ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency said its director-general, Rafael Mariano Grossi, informed member states Wednesday about the missing uranium.
The IAEA statement remained tightlipped though on much of the details.
On Tuesday, "agency safeguards inspectors found that 10 drums containing approximately 2.5 tons of natural uranium in the form of uranium ore concentrate were not present as previously declared at a location in the state of Libya," the IAEA said. "Further activities will be conducted by the agency to clarify the circumstances of the removal of the nuclear material and its current location."
Rooters first reported on the IAEA warning about the missing Libyan uranium, saying the IAEA told members reaching the site that’s not under government control required "complex logistics."
The IAEA declined to offer more details on the missing uranium. However,
there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly...
its acknowledgment the uranium went missing at a "previously declared site" narrows the possibilities.
One such declared site is Sabha
...After the Libyan Civil War, Sabha grew in importance as a slave auctioning town. However, an investigation by the National Commission for Human Rights in Libya (NCHRL) revealed that while there was illegal slavery, reports were exaggerated, as slave auctions were rare and not made public. This was a great comfort to everyone but the slaves peddled in secret. The city was later seized by forces loyal to the Libyan National Army (LNA) and its leader Khalifa Haftar in January 2019, probably for its collection of MiG-25 aircraft....
, some 660 kilometers (410 miles) southeast of Libya’s capital, Tripoli
...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn...
, in the country’s lawless southern reaches of the Sahara Desert. There, Libya under dictator Muammar Qadaffy
...The late megalomaniac dictator of Libya, admired everywhere for his garish costumes, funny hats, harem of cutie bodyguards , and incoherent ravings. As far as is known, he is the only person who's ever declared jihad on Switzerland...
stored thousands of barrels of so-called yellowcake uranium for a once-planned uranium conversion facility that was never built in his decadeslong secret weapons program.
Estimates put the Libyan stockpile at some 1,000 metric tons of yellowcake uranium under Qadaffy, who declared his nascent nuclear weapons program to the world in 2003 to after the US-led invasion of Iraq.
While inspectors removed the last of the enriched uranium from Libya in 2009, the yellowcake remained behind, with the UN in 2013 estimating some 6,400 barrels of it were stored at Sabha. American officials had worried Iran
 ...The nation is noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence...
could try to purchase the uranium from Libya, something Qadaffy’s top civilian nuclear official tried to reassure the US about, according to a 2009 diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks.
"Stressing that Libya viewed the question as primarily a commercial one, (the official) noted that prices for uranium yellowcake on the world market had been increasing, and that Libya wanted to maximize its profit by properly timing the sale of its stockpile," then-Ambassador Gene A. Cretz wrote.
But the 2011 Arab Spring saw rebels topple Qadaffy and ultimately kill him. Sabha grew increasingly lawless, with African migrants colonists crossing Libya, saying some had been sold as slaves in the city, the UN reported.
In recent years, Sabha largely has been under the control of the self-styled Libyan National Army, headed by Khalifa Hifter. The general, who is widely believed to have worked with the CIA during his time in exile during Qadaffy’s era, has been battling for control of Libya against a Tripoli-based government.
A front man for Hifter declined to answer questions from The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. Chadian rebel forces also have had a presence in the southern city over recent years. 
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Posted by trailing wife 2023-03-17 00:00||
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