Word: saddamism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Though gratified by the sudden openness, Western officials were stunned by the breadth of the Iraqi enrichment effort, and suspected that Saddam's disclosure only hinted at his actual nuclear capability. Indeed, the intelligence failure is almost as frightening as the prospect of Saddam's bomb. After Israeli jets destroyed Iraq's Osirak research reactor in 1981, Baghdad embarked headlong on a secret enrichment program that relied on an old-fashioned method called electromagnetic isotope separation. Used by Manhattan Project scientists in the 1940s, the technology is considered so obsolete that it is discussed openly in scientific literature...
...latest evidence has left American and British officials uncertain about the exact size of Iraq's weapons-grade uranium stockpile. In theory, had Saddam's physicists proceeded unimpeded from 1985 to 1995, Iraq might have been able to amass anywhere from 200 lbs. to 1,100 lbs. of bomb-ready fuel, experts say. At present, the amount of fissionable uranium is probably still very small. "I'd be skeptical of claims that he's close to a bomb," said an Administration official. "People who come out with bold statements about how much material he has just don't know what...
That still leaves the anti-Saddam alliance in a quandary. Although U.N. Resolution 687 gives inspectors the authority to find and remove from Iraq all chemical, biological and nuclear material and equipment, enforcing the ban is a delicate job. Backed by Britain, Bush has been brandishing his sword largely to spook Saddam into cooperating with the U.N. inspection teams -- a strategy that has yielded only mixed results...
...kind of talk only illustrates Bush's problem. The alleged 4 lbs. of enriched uranium occupies a space about the size of a golf ball. The 30 to 38 electromagnetic separators can be shuttled on flatbed trucks, just like the elusive Scud missiles. Intelligence reports last week revealed that Saddam's troops were burying equipment in the sand. Any attack now would only be partially successful at best and, U.S. officials fear, might lead Saddam to retaliate against Israel or the Kurds. As Bush admitted, it's hard to "certify" the locations "when you're burying component parts...
...week to plead with Iraqi military leaders to overthrow their boss. Going well beyond his previous statements, Bush declared, "Our argument is not with the people of Iraq. It's not even with other leaders in Iraq. We'd be perfectly willing to give the military another chance, provided Saddam was out of there." Explained a Bush aide later: "That was very blatant. We don't care if the military takes over. It's Saddam we want...