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AW: Iraq and nuclear weapons development -Osirak reactor story
Stewart,
Besides that I think that the political propaganda inherent in your last
mail is off topic (the story is very old and more than controversial!), I am
very disappointed, because I remember many excellent comments from you on
RADSAFE. According to news in Europe even US citizens are not unanomiously
backing a war in Iraq and in Europe there is an almost 90% of the population
refusing it. I appreciated it, that until now, these political issues have
been kept off RADSAFE. Please keep it off in the future!!!!!
Franz
-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
[mailto:owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu]Im Auftrag von Stewart Farber
Gesendet: Dienstag, 04. März 2003 00:17
An: Radsafe
Betreff: Iraq and nuclear weapons development -Osirak reactor story
Radsafe:
On the issue of nuclear weapons proliferation as background to concerns
about
Iraq some on Radsafe might find the following of interst.
There is a book [First Strike by Shlomo Nadimon, 353 pages] published in
1987
which tells the inside story of why and how Israel took the actions it did
in
1981 to destroy the Osirak nuclear reactor being built by Iraq. The Osirak
research reactor was being built by the Iraqi's [ironically given today's
realpolitik on action against Iraq, with the reactor supplied by the French,
and
with Hot cells supplied to Iraq by the Germans for reprocessing its HEU
irradiated fuel] with the clearly stated intention of Saddam of developing
nuclear weapons to destroy Israel and make Iraq the main power in the
Mideast &
Arab world.
Saddam had referred to his having nuclear weapons circa 1980 as the "sword
of
Nebuchadnezzar" to be used to destroy Iraq's foes and restore the splendor
of
Babylon to the Arab world.
The author of First Strike, Shlomo Nakdimon was as I recall an inside
military
person in the Israeli Air Force. The book reads like a novel and is a
fascinating
read.
>From a review on this book available used from www.Amazon.com
"The Political Background to an Historic Air Raid"
"In a bombing raid that took months to prepare, and mere minutes to release
the
bombs, on June 7, 1981 the Israel Air Force robbed Saddam Hussein of the
ability
to produce nuclear weapons for at least another decade. It would take the
Iraqi
dictator years of effort to replace what he had lost in this one day's
operation.
It would take the free world almost as many years to recognized the debt
that
they owed to the Israeli leadership which had rid them of this threat.
In these pages, Shlomo Nakdimon has captured the political story behind this
operation: the years of futile diplomacy and negotiation, during which the
Israeli government attempted in vain to warn the United States and Europe of
the
impending danger of a nuclear armed Iraq; and following the raid, the months
of
condemnation and the arms embargo that Israel endured for eliminating this
threat. Shlomo Nakdimon's account provides an essential record of these
events,
and a warning against complacency in the face of a dictatorial madman. While
not
as riveting as Dan McKinnon's account of these same events, which is told
from
the pilot's point of view, the political story told by Nakdimon is perhaps
of
more enduring value. It is sobering to realize how many world leaders knew
of
Saddam Hussein's nuclear ambitions, but failed to react. For those readers
who
want to further explore the details behind Saddam Hussein's early nuclear
weapons
program, I can recommend the 1984 publication, "Nuclear Proliferation
Today", by
Leonard S. Spector. However, Shlomo Nakdimon captures the essentials of this
story, and hopefully has captured a lesson that we will not soon forget."
==============
Info on book availability:
Description: Title: FIRST STRIKE/THE EXCLUSIVE STORY OF HOW ISRAEL FOILED
IRAQ'S
ATTEMPT TO GET THE BOMB
http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/exchange-glance/Y01Y4595812Y9909188/qid=
1046720998/sr=1-1/104-7919457-0880753
Stewart Farber, MSPH
farbersa@optonline.net
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