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Barack Obama declared yesterday that he would shift “the central front in the War on Terror” from Iraq to Afghanistan, promising a “new era of international co-operation” in which America would once more lead — rather than alienate — the rest of the world.

Mr Obama said yesterday that he wanted to secure the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, adding: “We need more troops, more helicopters, more satellites, more Predator drones.” He reiterated that the US forces should be ready to cross into Pakistan without permission “ to take out high-level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights”.

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The nation's top military officer said yesterday that more U.S. troops are needed in Afghanistan to tamp down an increasingly violent insurgency, but that the Pentagon does not have sufficient forces to send because they are committed to the war in Iraq.

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US Secretary of State Colin Powell brought good news to Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf on Thursday. The United States will elevate its military relationship with Pakistan as a major ally outside of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). That is the ultimate reward for Musharraf's willingness not only to do a lot of heavy lifting to capture or kill the top al-Qaeda leadership, but also for risking the very stability of his country by getting so close to Washington. But risks for Pakistan might not be as heady as they appear at a glance. For India and China, the elevation of Pakistan by the Bush administration poses new questions.

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“There is a deep concern about cross-border infiltration into Afghanistan and then back [across] the border,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a briefing in Washington on Monday. Pakistan understands “the importance of engaging in the counter-terrorism fight”, he added. The soldiers were killed in Kunar province in north-eastern Afghanistan, the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force said in a statement. A group of about 200 gunmen raided a US post in the deadliest attack on US forces in Afghanistan in three years, the Associated Press reported.

The Pakistan government says it is combating extremism through the selective use of force and a strategy of economic and political development in the tribal regions. The US and NATO say Pakistan's policy of holding talks with militants in the Tribal Areas has led to increased attacks by Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan.

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ORIGINAL: djv1255

Barack Obama declared yesterday that he would shift “the central front in the War on Terror” from Iraq to Afghanistan, promising a “new era of international co-operation” in which America would once more lead — rather than alienate — the rest of the world.

Mr Obama said yesterday that he wanted to secure the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, adding: “We need more troops, more helicopters, more satellites, more Predator drones.” He reiterated that the US forces should be ready to cross into Pakistan without permission “ to take out high-level terrorist targets like bin Laden if we have them in our sights”.
London Times

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Man was where Obama in 2003 when we invaded the wrong country? : / At least he's for putting the troops in the right place to fight on the right front.

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Obama to invade Pakistan

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Glad to hear there are very few terrorists where we have placed our soldiers. Oh, wait. We have soldiers in Afghanistan, too. That means there are few terrorists there, too. Hallelujah!

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ORIGINAL: rlj
At least we can finnally put all those troops that were in Iraq chasing around all of those non-existant WMD's to the work of actually fighting bin Laden and his cohorts.

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Few American newspaper readers learned that on Saturday the last of 550 metric tons of yellowcake was shipped from Iraq to a firm in Canada. Yellowcake is milled uranium oxide, the raw material from which nuclear bombs are made. According to Norman Dombey, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Sussex in England, the yellowcake shipped from Iraq was enough to make 142 nuclear bombs.

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ORIGINAL: relady

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Few American newspaper readers learned that on Saturday the last of 550 metric tons of yellowcake was shipped from Iraq to a firm in Canada. Yellowcake is milled uranium oxide, the raw material from which nuclear bombs are made. According to Norman Dombey, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Sussex in England, the yellowcake shipped from Iraq was enough to make 142 nuclear bombs.

I assum you can provide evidence for this assertion?

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ORIGINAL: djv1255

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ORIGINAL: rlj
At least we can finnally put all those troops that were in Iraq chasing around all of those non-existant WMD's to the work of actually fighting bin Laden and his cohorts.

Few American newspaper readers learned that on Saturday the last of 550 metric tons of yellowcake was shipped from Iraq to a firm in Canada. Yellowcake is milled uranium oxide, the raw material from which nuclear bombs are made. According to Norman Dombey, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Sussex in England, the yellowcake shipped from Iraq was enough to make 142 nuclear bombs.

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ORIGINAL: relady

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Few American newspaper readers learned that on Saturday the last of 550 metric tons of yellowcake was shipped from Iraq to a firm in Canada. Yellowcake is milled uranium oxide, the raw material from which nuclear bombs are made. According to Norman Dombey, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Sussex in England, the yellowcake shipped from Iraq was enough to make 142 nuclear bombs.

I assum you can provide evidence for this assertion?

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ORIGINAL: relady

quote:

Few American newspaper readers learned that on Saturday the last of 550 metric tons of yellowcake was shipped from Iraq to a firm in Canada. Yellowcake is milled uranium oxide, the raw material from which nuclear bombs are made. According to Norman Dombey, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Sussex in England, the yellowcake shipped from Iraq was enough to make 142 nuclear bombs.

I assum you can provide evidence for this assertion?

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ORIGINAL: djv1255

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ORIGINAL: rlj
At least we can finnally put all those troops that were in Iraq chasing around all of those non-existant WMD's to the work of actually fighting bin Laden and his cohorts.

Few American newspaper readers learned that on Saturday the last of 550 metric tons of yellowcake was shipped from Iraq to a firm in Canada. Yellowcake is milled uranium oxide, the raw material from which nuclear bombs are made. According to Norman Dombey, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Sussex in England, the yellowcake shipped from Iraq was enough to make 142 nuclear bombs.

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ORIGINAL: blessedinnyc

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ORIGINAL: djv1255

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ORIGINAL: rlj
At least we can finnally put all those troops that were in Iraq chasing around all of those non-existant WMD's to the work of actually fighting bin Laden and his cohorts.

Few American newspaper readers learned that on Saturday the last of 550 metric tons of yellowcake was shipped from Iraq to a firm in Canada. Yellowcake is milled uranium oxide, the raw material from which nuclear bombs are made. According to Norman Dombey, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Sussex in England, the yellowcake shipped from Iraq was enough to make 142 nuclear bombs.

Yellowcake?

First off, there's probably yellowcake in the ground in your backyard. Yellowcake on its own is nothing special- you can get raw U-235 out of:

-Your backyard
-Seawater
-Most rivers

The vast majority of yellowcake produced today is used for energy generation. After all, enriching yellowcake to being reactor grade takes a lot of work and infrastructure that a nation like Iraq wouldn't have.

Also, it appears that the site this yellowcake has been removed from hasn't been operational since 1991.

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ORIGINAL: Peter_Gunn

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ORIGINAL: relady

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Few American newspaper readers learned that on Saturday the last of 550 metric tons of yellowcake was shipped from Iraq to a firm in Canada. Yellowcake is milled uranium oxide, the raw material from which nuclear bombs are made. According to Norman Dombey, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Sussex in England, the yellowcake shipped from Iraq was enough to make 142 nuclear bombs.

I assum you can provide evidence for this assertion?

Here's another one...from Newsweek:

http://www.newsweek.com/id/144703/output/print

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And, in a symbolic way, the mission linked the current attempts to stabilize Iraq with some of the high-profile claims about Saddam's weapons capabilities in the buildup to the 2003 invasion.

Accusations that Saddam had tried to purchase more yellowcake from the African nation of Niger — and an article by a former U.S. ambassador refuting the claims — led to a wide-ranging probe into Washington leaks that reached high into the Bush administration.

Tuwaitha and an adjacent research facility were well known for decades as the centerpiece of Saddam's nuclear efforts.

Israeli warplanes bombed a reactor project at the site in 1981. Later, U.N. inspectors documented and safeguarded the yellowcake, which had been stored in aging drums and containers since before the 1991 Gulf War. There was no evidence of any yellowcake dating from after 1991, the official said.

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Then why would someone like Sadam have so much of it?

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It is necessary to enrich the U-235 isotope concentration from its natural composition of 0.7% for use in either reactors or bombs. Reactor grade uranium contains from 3.5 to 4.0% U-235, while the Hiroshima uranium bomb contained more than 80% of the lighter U-235

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ORIGINAL: WesP

What percentage would it take to make a dirty bomb? If it is only 4%, would that hurt people?

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In order for a terrorist organization to construct and detonate a dirty bomb, they must first acquire radioactive material either by stealing it or buying through legal or illegal channels. Possible RDD material could come from the millions of radioactive sources used worldwide in the industry, for medical purposes and in academic applications mainly for research. Of these sources, only nine reactor produced isotopes stand out as being suitable for radiological terror: americium-241, californium-252, caesium-137, cobalt-60, iridium-192, plutonium-238, polonium-210, radium-226 and strontium-90,[7] and even from these it is possible that radium-226 and polonium-210 do not pose a significant threat.

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What are the main dangers of a dirty bomb?
The main danger from a dirty bomb is from the explosion, which can cause serious injuries and property damage. The radioactive materials used in a dirty bomb would probably not create enough radiation exposure to cause immediate serious illness, except to those people who are very close to the blast site. However, the radioactive dust and smoke spread farther away could be dangerous to health if it is inhaled.

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ORIGINAL: WesP

What percentage would it take to make a dirty bomb? If it is only 4%, would that hurt people?

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I wonder what Valerie has to say about this? How about her husband? Was is not established that Iraq's pursuit of yellowcake was bogus?

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Yellowcake poses no dirty bomb risk. Heck, there's probably yellowcake in your backyard.