Iraqi madman Saddam Hussein will likely have a "Hiroshima
size" nuclear bomb within the next 24 months, the physicist
who headed up Iraq's nuclear weapons research program said
Monday.
Citing U.S. intelligence estimates, Dr. Khidir Hamza told
nationally syndicated radio taker Sean Hannity, "I don't think he
has [nuclear weapons] right now but it may not take long for him
to have it - a year or two probably."
"U.S. intelligence estimates at least a year. Germany estimates by
2005, three nuclear weapons," the top Iraqi nuke scientist said.
Dr. Hamza, who defected to the U.S. in 1994, warned about
Hussein's nuclear weapons program in his autobiography,
"Saddam's Bombmaker," three years ago. More recently he has
been working closely with U.S. intelligence agencies.
He declined to describe the precise nature of his cooperation with
those agencies, telling Hannity, "I cannot talk about that. You
know that."
Hamza did reveal that the 1991 Gulf War interrupted Iraq's A-
bomb program in its final stage, just as he and the rest of
Saddam's nuke team were in the process of acquiring materials for
the bomb's nuclear core.
HAMZA: We [scientists] dragged our feet. We really had enough
material to make the bomb then. We delivered it now back to the
French but we claimed that we could not extract enough uranium
to put in a nuclear core. ...
HANNITY: So you're saying you did have enough - you could
have built nuclear weapons but you dragged your feet?
HAMZA: We could have, yes. Actually, everybody [dragged their
feet], including the chemists who were in the process of extracting
the uranium from the French bureau. Nobody wanted to give
Saddam a bomb because we know he would use it recklessly and
finish Iraq with it. (End of Excerpt)
German intelligence now believes Hussein once again has all the
bombmaking materials he needs except for the enriched uranium
necessary for the nuclear core.
"According to the Germans he, more or less, has 30 to 35 percent
of the technology needed to enrich uranium for bomb grade," said
Hamza, adding, "so he will have enough uranium, and he already
has a stockpile of uranium to use."
The top Iraqi nuke scientist said that, based on what he witnessed,
Hussein is working on "Hiroshima size" weapons of "12 to 20
kilotons."
But he cautioned:
"There was some enhancement to the bomb that could raise it to
40 kilotons. So you are looking at [a] realistic nuclear weapons
stockpile equivalent to that of, say, at least India and Pakistan -
and if it continues, probably larger."
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