Professor Norman Dombey, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Sussex, England, has confirmed that Saddam Hussein had more than enough yellowcake uranium to make over 100 nuclear weapons. There was no conceivable peaceful use for this material in Iraq. The United Nations agency responsible for monitoring Iraq's nuclear efforts turned a blind eye to this stockpile.

On July 15th, American Thinker readers were alerted  to the real story behind the initial shipment of low—enriched uranium out of Saddam's al—Tuwaitha nuclear research site.  This shipment of two tons was only a drop in the bucket compared to the 500 tons of yellowcake still stored at Site C in the complex.

In an op—ed piece in The Evening Standard, Professor Dombey stated that

Iraq already had far more uranium than it needed for any conceivable nuclear weapons programme.

Not only that, but there was no peaceful use for development of the yellowcake into nuclear fuel, since both the French and Russian reactors had been destroyed decades ago.  Yet personnel from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency noted the presence of depleted uranium onsite.  This means that some enrichment did, in fact, take place since depleted uranium is a natural byproduct of the enrichment process.*

Professor Dombey also does the math in calculating the weapons potential for this huge amount of nuclear material

You have a warehouse containing 500 tons of natural uranium; you need 25 kilograms of U235 to build one weapon.  How many nuclear weapons can you build?  The answer is 142.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog, has been deliberately deceptive in their 'monitoring' of the al—Tuwaitha site, while they assured the West that the material was under seal and would not be tampered with.  It is now clear that the IAEA is, in fact, impotent in their lame attempts to ensure rogue nations adhere to the provisions of the Non—Proliferation Treaty.  The article goes on to say

...the IAEA was also in charge of monitoring North Korea's nuclear program right up until 2002, when Pyongyang announced it would begin producing nuclear weapons.

It boggles the mind that some politicians in this country salivate over the concept of turning our national security over to the UN, when it is clear that the organization turns a blind eye to a vicious dictator intent on developing nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.

*The paragraph just completed was inadvertently italicized in initial publication, due to an editor's error. It was not authored by Professor Dombey, but raher by Douglas Hanson. The American Thinker regrets the error.