Except, it isn’t

Except, it totally is.

After Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq fell, 500 tons of yellow cake uranium were successfully removed from the country.

• ✔️ Iraq had ~500 tons of yellowcake
• ✔️ It was removed after Saddam fell
• ❌ It was not evidence of a hidden or revived nuclear weapons program
• ❌ It does not validate pre-war intelligence claims

So the statement is true, but frequently used in a misleading way.

• This material dated back to the 1970s–1980s
• It was part of Iraq’s old, dismantled nuclear program
• It had been:
• Known to inspectors
• Declared
• Monitored
• Left over from before the 1991 Gulf War

It was not newly acquired, not hidden, and not evidence of a revived nuclear weapons effort.

Saddam also was preventing UN IAEA inspectors access to locations for inspection. When they were finally allowed access, they found indications of residual radiation. Saddam made his own bed, and he got what he deserved.

I suppose the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis that went with him deserved it, too.

Mohamed ElBaradei reported to the UN Security Council in March 2003:
• ❌ No evidence of reconstituted nuclear weapons programs
• ❌ No evidence of uranium procurement
• ❌ Niger yellowcake documents were forgeries
• ✔️ Iraq’s nuclear program remained dismantled

He specifically said Iraq was “not close” to acquiring a nuclear weapon.

• Inspectors detected trace residual radiation
• This radiation was:
Expected
Harmless
From Iraq’s pre-1991 nuclear program
It was found at known, declared sites that had been:
Bombed by Israel (Osirak reactor, 1981)
Dismantled under UN supervision in the 1990s

This was NOT evidence of:
• A secret program
• Restarted enrichment
• Weapons production
• Recent nuclear activity

Environmental sampling is so sensitive that it can detect:
• Decades-old uranium particles
• Residue from equipment long destroyed

The IAEA explicitly stated this radiation was legacy contamination.