One Person's Trash is Another's Treasure

I've seen this posted at a few sites: Balta, and TalkingPointsMemo, to name two. The Guardian's report is from Josh Marshall, and sums it up as good as anything:

Some Iraqi nuclear facilities appear to be unguarded, and radioactive materials are being taken out of the country, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency reported after reviewing satellite images and equipment that has turned up in European scrapyards...

The United Sattes has virtually cut off information-sharing with the IAEA since invading Iraq in March 2002 on the premise that the country was hiding weapons of mass destruction...

[S]atellite imagery shows "extensive removal of equipment and in some instances, removal of entire buildings,'' in Iraq.

In addition, "large quanitities of scrap, some of it contaminated, have been transfered out of Iraq from sites'' previously monitored by the IAEA.

In January, the IAEA confirmed that Iraq was the likely source of radioactive material known as yellowcake that was found in a shipment of scrap metal at Rotterdam harbor.

Earlier this week, I posted about the new Ministry of Trade in Iraq, and how it is encouraging the export of scrap metal by easing regulations. At the time, I mentioned that it would be interesting to see if they attempted to keep metal contaminated with DU off the market. Apparently they're not even regulating yellowcake.

For the record, the IAEA was aware of Iraqi nuclear material prior to the invasion. Indeed, they had, with the help of the UN inspection teams, identified and sealed sites where the stuff was contained. The invading forces did NOT maintain a guard around these sites, and looting was reported. In some cases, people got sick from exposure to radioactive material.

Now we're finding out that this stuff has reached the open market. Geez. Can't we do ANYTHING right? Establishing a perimeter around known nuclear sites should have been a TOP priority. Hell, I opposed the invasion, but if Bush was going to go ahead with it anyway, couldn't he at least have done it properly? Yet, he STILL can't think of any mistakes.

Add this to "bring 'em on," "hit the trifecta," "we found the WMD," "Saddam wouldn't allow the inspectors to return," "Mission Accomplished," and "the Weapons of Mass Destruction have to be somewhere," etc., etc., etc.

Update: Not to mention his dismissal of the August 6th PDB as "history," and his inability to articulate why he wouldn't alert the country to HIJACKINGS IN GENERAL, not merely hijackings that use airplanes as weapons...

Can we please just send this guy back home to Texas and let him play with his chainsaw? Provided, of course, he's nowhere near any people or animals.