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Re: AW: Iraq and nuclear weapons development -Osirak reactor story
Radsafe:
I never received the post below from Franz Schoenhofer until posted by Mahmoud
Haleem as noted below. Not sure why. My earlier post made no argument for or
against military action concerning Iraq, but only made reference to a book
detailing an action that prevented Iraq from having had an arsenal of what would
have been several dozen nuclear weapons at its disposal during the Gulf War when
Iraq invaded Kuwait.
Political propaganda Franz? Hardly. My post only related to historical events. As
the bard wrote: "The past is prologue", or as Georg Santayana wrote: "Those who
fail to remember history are condemned to relive it." Seems like reasonable
thoughts for both Germany and France given the history of the 20th century. If
Radsafe considers its role as just dealing with picoCuries of radioactivity while
ignoring Megatons of fission yield, I see a bit of a disconnect.
I fail to see how issues directly related to nuclear weapons proliferation are
not within the purview of members of Radsafe. I consider my prior post neither
propaganda or politics.
Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
======================
3/5/03 8:21:43 AM, "Mahmoud S. Haleem" <mhaleem@accmail.umd.edu> wrote:
>Thanks for the reminder, keep politics off the radsafe.
>
>Franz Schoenhofer wrote:
>
>> 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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>
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