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Montreal is a leading centre for Islamist and Jihadists groups in North America

Is Saddam’s “yellowcake” safe in Montreal?



image The US military’s painstaking trail of getting 550 metric tons of “yellowcake” out of Iraq across two oceans to its final Canadian destination may not have considered that Montreal is a leading centre for Islamist and Jihadists groups in North America. The booty, described as “the last major remnant of Saddam Hussein’s nuclear program” arrived in Montreal on the July 4th weekend, where it will remain until Fall. The military operation to remove the massive amount of concentrated natural uranium from the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles (19 kilometers south of Baghdad) was utterly hush hush.

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As long as it was in Tuwaitha, American and Iraqi authorities worried the cache would reach insurgents or that smugglers would get it into Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions. “The removal of 550 metric tons of “yellowcake”—the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment—was a significant step toward closing the book on Saddam’s nuclear legacy,” (FoxNews.com, July 5, 2008). In the clean up of the remaining radioactive debris at Tuwaitha, the US military will use teams that include Iraqi experts recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine. Canadian uranium producer, Cameco Corp. is the new owner of “tens of millions of dollars” worth of Saddam’s carefully hoarded yellowcake, which will now be processed at facilities in Ontario for use in the energy-producing reactors for which Canada is famous. “Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq,” said a U.S. official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to the Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.” But is Montreal, where the cache will remain for three months before Cameco sends it to Port Hope and Blind River, a guaranteed safe zone for 550 metric tons of yellowcake? Cameco spokesman Lyle Krahn confirmed the yellowcake uranium shipment arrived in Montreal by ship Saturday and is scheduled to be transported by truck to the company’s facilities in Ontario. “We will be completing the transaction in the third quarter of this year, the shipment is in Canada at this point and we will be completing it in the fall.” (Resource Investor, July 7, 2008). Not all terrorists are lurking in Iraq. “Montreal is the leading centre for Islamist and Jihadists groups in North American, many inspired by or with ties to al Qaida,” Montrealer Beryl Wajsman wrote in a double byline Canada Free Press (CFP) cover story with this writer on July 10, 2006. “In total, with dozens of cells, Montreal has the largest number of such groups in any city in North America, not on a per capita basis but in gross numbers.” “Radical Muslim operatives go to ground in Montreal. They rest and recruit in Montreal and get their recreation here,” says Wajsman, a Montreal resident. What is the appeal of Canada’s second largest city for al Qaida? “Islamists, al Qaida sympathizers, and terrorist fellow travelers view Montreal as being both intellectually and culturally open, accessible and exploitable,” says Wajsman. “Montreal has a large, diverse Arab Muslim community whose members hail from many countries, speaking many languages and dialects, making their milieus natural hiding places.” Deposits of concentrated natural uranium create potential problems wherever they are stored. “U.S. and Iraqi forces have guarded the 23-acre (9,300-hectare) site—surrounded by huge sand berms—following a wave of looting after Saddam’s fall that included villagers toting away yellowcake storage barrels for use as drinking water cisterns. Cameco is spending between $15 and $20 million to clean up and another $20 to $25 million to repair and upgrade contaminated soil at its Port Hope uranium hexafluoride conversion plant and expects the work to also be completed in the fall. Uranium hexafluoride operations have been suspended since the discovery of contaminated soil under the plant in July of 2007. Those with experience dealing with it maintain that yellowcake uranium poses no severe risk if stored and sealed properly and contend that the material is quite commonly transported with safeguards and security measures in place. Gordon Edwards, who heads the Montreal-based Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility warns, “Yellowcake itself is a very find powder.” “It’s sort of the consistency of flour and uranium is radioactive heavy metal. “The stuff is in very dispersible form and could easily be blown in the wind and could contaminate an extensive part of an area…because it’s so finely ground.” Meanwhile, the US military who cloaked the transportation of Saddam Hussein’s uranium cache for an 8,500-mile trip in secrecy should have maintained that secrecy for its final destination point.


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Judi McLeod -- Bio and Archives -- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

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