Missing Iraqi High-Precision Nuclear Experiment Was Stolen by Experts, Not Looted, Diplomats Say

There are indications that missing high-precision nuclear-related equipment in Iraq was removed by experts working systematically, contrary to claims by Iraqi officials that the equipment was taken during disorganized looting, diplomats said yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 14).

Satellite imagery available to the International Atomic Energy Agency of Iraqi nuclear sites indicates the scale and complexity of an operation to remove the missing equipment, one diplomat said.

“Our assumption is that this had to have been an organized effort by professionals who had to have had heavy lifting equipment and big trucks,” the diplomat said (George Jahn, Associated Press/Boston Herald, Oct. 14).

Meanwhile, Russia yesterday called on the United States and the interim Iraqi government to allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency and the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission to return to Iraq, according to Agence France-Presse.

“We believe that these organizations, which possess all the necessary expertise to that end, must as soon as possible receive unlimited access to Iraq’s nuclear sites to resume their interrupted task,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement (Agence France-Presse/SpaceWar.com, Oct. 15).

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