AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — A recycling company found uranium oxide -- a radioactive material also known as yellowcake (search) -- in a shipment of scrap steel it believes originally came from Iraq (search), the company said Thursday

[snip]Nuclear experts say that although not highly radioactive, uranium oxide can be processed into enriched uranium (search) usable in a nuclear weapon -- but highly advanced technology is needed.

[snip]Environment ministry spokesman Wim van der Weegen said scrap metal companies in the Rotterdam port, which is Europe's largest, report around 200 findings of radioactive material per year, often from old hospital equipment or normal industrial uses.

But the finding of an estimated two pounds of uranium oxide is odd, Van der Weegen said.

Experts said that around 2 pounds of yellowcake, the amount found, would not be useful for either a bomb or fuel.

Dr. Alan Ketering, a researcher at the nuclear research plant at the University of Missouri-Columbia, said yellowcake contains less than 1 percent of U-235 used in nuclear weapons. He said it would need to be refined many times with sophisticated technology before it was dangerous -- and the amount found in Rotterdam would not be nearly enough.

"Anybody can dig it up and purify it to make the yellow stuff," he said. "It's the separation of U-235 that people are concerned about."

However, he said there was no obvious non-nuclear industrial use for yellowcake and it would be strange to find it in random scrap metal

Public Communication At his best, Clinton is an outstanding communicator. He is at the top of his form when he is on the defensive and in contexts that evoke his Southern Baptist heritage, such as his 1995 address in Oklahoma City. At worst, he is long-winded, unfocused, and "off message," which is to say that his rhetoric mirrored the rest of his leadership.

Clinton's rhetorical shortcomings were most evident early in his presidency, when he sometimes stepped on his own lines by making multiple statements in the same news cycle. He also was capable of discarding a prepared textr and ad libbing his way into political trouble. For example, in his September 1993 endorsement of New York's first African American mayor, David Dinkins, for reelection, Clinton offhandedly remarked that New Yorkers who voted against Dinkins might well be guilty of unconscious racism. The assertion was harmful to Dinkins, drawing fire even from some of his supporters.

According to United Press International, the al Qaeda car was intercepted just 75 miles from the Syrian border and "carried explosives, a chemical bomb and poisonous gas."

The discovery of the al Qaeda WMD plot is sure to renew speculation that some of Saddam Hussein's missing weapons of mass destruction were hidden in Syria before the U.S. attacked in March 2003, and have now found their way into al Qaeda's hands.

Moqtada al-Sadr represents a formidable problem for the military in Iraq, the U.S. intelligence community has acknowledged, according to Geostrategy-Direct, the global intelligence news service.

Al-Sadr might be the bane among Shiite clerics. But over the last year he has managed to completely intimidate even the most prominent of clerics, such as Ayatollah Ali Sistani.

Al-Sadr has also managed to win supporters and cooperation within the Sunni community. His poster has been pasted in mosques even in hardcore Fallujah.

U.S. intelligence analysts said al-Sadr has managed to inspire just about everybody who opposes the U.S. in Iraq.

More importantly, al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army have exploited a new class of disenfranchised Shiites who are unemployed and have nothing to lose. He has won thousands of Shiites – and in some cases Sunnis – with tens of millions of dollars of Iranian money.

The intelligence analysts say the U.S. military underestimated several factors:


1. The extent to which Saddam Hussein kept Iraq together by pure intimidation.
2. The absence of a community infrastructure in Iraq.

3. The vulnerability of a socially- and politically-decimated Iraq to neighboring Iran.

Al-Sadr brings the United States to a crossroad. Over the next few weeks, the U.S. will either push hard or bring Sunni and Shiite insurgents to the wall and reign by fear until an authoritarian Iraq can rule itself.

Or, the Iraqi Governing Council and the security forces will disintegrate, with soldiers and police doing little more than showing up to work and collecting salaries – but failing to impose order.

The analysts warn that the United States cannot rely on either the Sunni or Shiite clergy. Indeed, they have never been in a position of influence on a national level.

In many towns and cities, Shiite clerics took over municipal services but were quickly confronted by rivals who stressed their opposition to the United States.

Their analysts' assessment: a Shiite insurgency could go nationwide over the next few months.