Perhaps the French agreed to build a new one at no charge, but the Iraqis needed it then and there, and took the risk of the core cracking. This is what Dr. Khidhir Hamza says about the incident. Dr. Hamza was a U.S. trained nuclear physicist who went back to Iraq to build Saddam's nuclear bomb. This is from his book, Saddam's Bombmaker. He claims to have been on the scene when the negotiations were taking place.
"The cores were still good enough to be put on line and fired up, but they'd eventually crack. Manufacturing a new one, the French told us, would take about two years. Far from being apologetic for not safeguarding the equipment, however, the French were haughty, even dismissive: 'We could take it or leave it,' they said. If we took it, we'd have to sign a waiver releasing them from responsibility in the event of an accident. Which put us in a quandary. It was Jaffar's call, and I could see that he was wringing his hands. To my surprise, however, (until now he had been an indifferent bureaucrat) he diecided to accept the damaged core, sign the waiver, and hope for the best. Apparently, he'd decided that the prospect of a nuclear malfunction was nothing compared with the heat he'd get from Saddam if the project was delayed. When the news got out that the French were resuming shipment of the cores, the reaction from Israel was ominously muted, we thought. Their sabotage had failed. The next time, we feared, they wouldn't go after the equipment. They'd go after one of us. |
