Download or read book Saddam Hussein s Nuclear Vision written by Norman L. Cigar and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines why Saddam Hussein pursued nuclear weapons and, as a basic aspect of that question, how he might have employed that capability had he acquired it, whether for deterrence, warfighting, or something else. As the key decision maker in Iraq, Saddam's own thinking was central. His perception of regional threats, primarily from Iran and Israel, were a prime motivator. In addition, Saddam viewed acquiring nuclear weapons as a potent vehicle to help legitimize his regime and burnish his personal image as leader both at home and in the Arab World, as a modernizer and defender of national interests. A better understanding of the Iraqi case can also clarify the enduring issues related to how regional leaders may view nuclear weapons in this world of looming proliferation.
Download or read book Saddam Hussein s Nuclear Vision written by Norman L. Cigar and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Saddam Hussein s nuclear vision written by Norman Cigar and published by Marine Corps Association. This book was released on 2011-12 with total page 97 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines why Saddam Hussein pursued nuclear weapons and, as a basic aspect of that question, how he might have employed that capability had he acquired it, whether for deterrence, warfighting, or something else. As the key decision maker in Iraq, Saddam's own thinking was central. His perception of regional threats, primarily from Iran and Israel,were a prime motivator. In addition, Saddam viewed acquiring nuclear weapons as a potent vehicle to help legitimize his regime and burnish his personal image as leader both at home and in the Arab World, as a modernizer and defender of national interests.A better understanding of the Iraqi case can also clarify the enduring issues related to how regional leaders may view nuclear weapons in this world of looming proliferation. Overall, this study suggests that any trend toward nuclear proliferation could contribute to destabilizing effects--as was the case with Iraq--and argues for the desirability of continuing vigorous international efforts to halt or slow proliferation.
Download or read book Saddam Hussein s Nuclear Vision written by Department of Defense and published by . This book was released on 2017-09-14 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study examines why Saddam Hussein pursued nuclear weapons and, as a basic aspect of that question, how he might have employed that capability had he acquired it, whether for deterrence, warfighting, or something else. As the key decision maker in Iraq, Saddam's own thinking was central. His perception of regional threats, primarily from Iran and Israel, were a prime motivator. In addition, Saddam viewed acquiring nuclear weapons as a potent vehicle to help legitimize his regime and burnish his personal image as leader both at home and in the Arab World, as a modernizer and defender of national interests. A better understanding of the Iraqi case can also clarify the enduring issues related to how regional leaders may view nuclear weapons in this world of looming proliferation.The West often tended to assume that if Iraq ever acquired this capability, it would have adopted a posture similar to that which had characterized the theory and practice of the superpowers during the Cold War, resulting in a more stable mutual deterrence. However, rather than viewing nuclear weapons as a stabilizing factor through strategic deterrence, Iraqi thinking suggested a potentially destabilizing approach, given the intent to change the status quo and the balance of power in the region. Iraqi thinking on deterrence entailed a far from benign "aggressive deterrence" by providing a shield for a more assertive--and potentially very disruptive--policy beyond Iraq's borders. Iraq also perceived that nuclear weapons had a warfighting role, in addition to a deterrence role, with nuclear military doctrine developed even at the operational level. Iraqi military doctrinal publications and operational documents from the 1980s, developed with the anticipated imminent acquisition of a nuclear weapons capability, contain the distilled rationale, assumptions, and real-world preparation for Iraq's development, force integration, and use of such weapons. Moreover, the Iraqi regime's threshold for use of such weapons seems to have been considerably lower than conventional wisdom posited (at least in regional conflicts).
Download or read book The Bomb in My Garden written by Mahdi Obeidi and published by Wiley. This book was released on 2005-09-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Acclaim for the Bomb in My Garden "This one book will tell you more about Iraq's quest for weapons of mass destruction than all U.S. intelligence on the subject. It is a fascinating and rare glimpse inside Saddam Hussein's Iraq-and inside a tyrant's mind." -Fareed Zakaria, author of The Future of Freedom "The Bomb in My Garden is important and utterly gripping. The old clich? is true-you start reading, and you don't want to stop. Mahdi Obeidi's story makes clear how hard Saddam Hussein tried to develop a nuclear weapon, and the reasons he fell short. It is also unforgettable as a picture of how honorable people tried to cope with a despot's demands. I enthusiastically recommend this book." -James Fallows, National Correspondent, The Atlantic Monthly "One of the three or four accounts that anyone remotely interested in the Iraq debate will simply have to read. Apart from its insight into the workings of the Saddam nuclear project, it provides a haunting account of the atmosphere of sheer evil that permeated every crevice of Iraqi life under the old regime." -christopher hitchens, Slate "Mahdi Obeidi describes in jaw-dropping detail how Iraq acquired the means to produce highly enriched uranium, the key ingredient to building a nuclear weapon, by the eve of the first Gulf War. . . . [His book] offers insights into how a determined dictator, backed by sufficient resources, can come within reach of acquiring the world's most horrific weapons." -The Washington Post BookWorld
Download or read book Saddam s Bombmaker written by Jeff Stein and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2001-06-24 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Iraqi scientist who designed Baghdad's nuclear bomb tells how he did it in secret with the cynical help of U.S., French, German, and British suppliers and experts, and kept it hidden from U.N. inspectors after the Gulf War. Today, he says, Saddam Hussein is only months away from making a workable bomb and has every intention of using it. Don't tell me about the law. The law is anything I write on a scrap of paper." Saddam Hussein In 1994, after twenty years developing Iraq's atomic weapon, Dr. Khidhir Hamza made a daring escape to warn the CIA of Saddam's nuclear ambitions...only to be ridiculed and turned away! After a harrowing journey across three continents with Iraqi agents on his trail, Hamza finally came in from the cold at the U.S. embassy in Hungary. Now he tells a frightening story that U.S. officials have finally come to believe: that Saddam is still feverishly at work on the bomb and, if pushed to the wall, will use it. Dr. Hamza also presents a startling, unprecedented portrait of Saddam himself his drunken rages, his women, his fear of germs, and his cold-blooded murder of underlings. A former resident of the presidential palace, Hamza is the only defector who has lived to write a firsthand, intimate portrait of the Iraqi inner circle, its spies and hit men, and their brutal chief. Saddam's Bombmaker is also a saga of one man's journey through the circles of hell. Educated at MIT and Florida State University, dedicated to a life of peaceful teaching in America, Dr. Hamza relates how the regime ordered him home, seduced him into a pampered life as an atomic energy official, and forced him to design a bomb. The price of refusal was torture. As the father of the Iraqi bomb, Dr. Hamza designed a device from scratch with the help of World War Twoera blueprints from America's Los Alamos labs, all the while planning an escape. Privately, he and his colleagues believed they could procrastinate long enough to outlive Saddam. But the dictator outmaneuvered them, whipping the scientists into a crash program to build a crude bomb that could be dropped on Israel. Had U.S. and Allied forces not quickly mobilized for Desert Storm, Dr. Hamza relates, Saddam may well have succeeded; except for sufficient uranium, the device was ready. It still is. Dr. Hamza's tale of his escape, his first bungled contact with CIA agents, and his flight abroad will keep readers turning pages toward a climax worthy of a well-crafted spy thriller. Along the way, he reveals: The West's "don't ask, just sell" attitude toward Iraq's nuclear, chemical, and biological programs as long as it was fighting Iran. How Iraq tested biological and chemical weapons on human subjects. How the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) tried to recruit Dr. Hamza to make a bomb. Baghdad's secret program to break into U.S. and other foreign computer systems. Saddam's Bombmaker is not only a shocking political and scientific exposé -- it is a riveting adventure tale.
Download or read book Saddam Hussein written by Andrew Cockburn and published by Verso. This book was released on 2002 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: .The idea of direct invasion is the greatest threat to Saddam. It avoids the problems of securing local allies, inside and outside Iraq, which bedevil any indirect approach to get rid of him. But it has one immense disadvantage from the US point of view . if the US invades Iraq to install its own government it will be taking direct physical control of an area containing more than half the world.s oil reserves. It will look like the founding of a new American empire based on physical force and will be deeply resented . It would outrage the Arabs at a moment when the Israel-Palestine conflict is in a particularly bloody phase. America could find that it has overplayed its hand, just as Saddam did when he invaded Kuwait twelve years ago...From the new Prologue At the outset of the 1991 Gulf War, US leaders resolved the .Iraqis will pay the price., so long as Saddam Hussein remained in power. This book makes chillingly clear just how terrible that price has been. Eleven years ago Saddam was caught by surprise; his preparations since September 11 show that lessons have been learnt. In a substantial new prologue the authors analyse these preparations and the terrifying consequences of a military invasion of Iraq.
Download or read book Saddam s Bomb written by Shyam Bhatia and published by Sphere. This book was released on 2002 with total page 319 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In October 1990 Saddam Hussein ordered a crash programme to design a nuclear bomb that could easily be carried on a tank transporter to the outskirts of Kuwait City. His plan was to detonate it before the Allies could launch their war against him in Operation Desert Storm. His enemies had no idea he was so close to the bomb, even though some who worked for him had warned the West that Saddam was at his most dangerous when cornered. Saddam's Bomb tells the dramatic story of 'Petro Chemical 3' founded to implement Saddam's dream of transforming Iraq into the world's next great nuclear power. To achieve this he invested $18 billion and employed over 20,000 scientists at 60 top-secret sites all across Iraq in the greatest sleight of hand the world has ever witnessed. His family were the only ones he trusted to run a worldwide network of covert businesses to buy the components of the bomb. They in turn embezzled millions and plotted against each other in a series of blood feuds. Now, more than ever, Saddam remains a nuclear threat.
Download or read book Saddam Hussein written by Efraim Karsh and published by Grove/Atlantic, Inc.. This book was released on 2007-12-01 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Probably the best biography of Saddam Hussein...[it] presents a coherent view of a man who has generated a good deal of mythology” (Roger Hardy, BBC World Service). Authors Efraim Karsh and Inari Rautsi, experts on Middle East history and politics, have combined their expertise to write what is largely considered the definitive work on Iraq’s fifth president. Drawing on a wealth of Iraqi, Arab, Western, and Israeli sources, including interviews with people who have had close contact with Saddam Hussein throughout his career, the authors trace the meteoric transformation of an ardent nationalist and obscure Ba’ath party member into a dictator and geopolitical player. From Saddam’s key role in the violent coup that brought the Ba’ath party to power, to the Iran-Iraq War, the Gulf War, and beyond, Karsh and Rautsi present a detailed biography that skillfully interweaves analysis of Gulf politics and history. Now with a new introduction and epilogue, this authoritative biography is essential for understanding the life and influence of this modern tyrant.
Download or read book Confronting Saddam Hussein written by Melvyn P. Leffler and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Based on a unique set of interviews and British and American documents, this book examines the motives for the American invasion of Iraq in 2003, examines the decision-making inside the Bush administration, and assesses the reasons for the chaotic, bloody, and costly occupation. The attack on America on 9/11 by al Qaeda terrorists transformed the thinking and actions of Bush and his top advisers. Bush conceived the administration's response. Fear, power, and hubris shaped his approach - fear of another attack; pride in American values; and confidence in America's ability to effectuate change. Worried about another attack on American soil - this time with biological or chemical weapons - Bush turned his attention to Iraq because of Saddam Hussein's history with weapons of mass destruction and because of his record of aggression, brutality, and duplicity. To achieve his goals, the American president embraced a strategy of coercive diplomacy. If Iraq faced a military threat, Bush hoped Hussein would open his country to inspections, relinquish his alleged weapons of mass destruction, flee, or be toppled. When Hussein admitted inspectors yet remained obstructive, Bush denounced the dictator's defiance and believed America's credibility was at stake. Without resolving the ambiguities and inconsistencies in his strategy of coercive diplomacy and failing to assess the consequences of an invasion or to plan effectively for its many contingencies, Bush ordered U.S. troops to invade Iraq. Friction and acrimony within the administration turned the occupation into a tragedy, the consequences of which we are still living with"--
Download or read book Raid on the Sun written by Rodger Claire and published by Crown. This book was released on 2004-04-13 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first authorized inside account of one of the most daring—and successful—military operations in recent history From the earliest days of his dictatorship, Saddam Hussein had vowed to destroy Israel. So when France sold Iraq a top-of-the-line nuclear reactor in 1975, the Israelis were justifiably concerned—especially when they discovered that Iraqi scientists had already formulated a secret program to extract weapons-grade plutonium from the reactor, a first critical step in creating an atomic bomb. The reactor formed the heart of a huge nuclear plant situated twelve miles from Baghdad, 1,100 kilometers from Tel Aviv. By 1981, the reactor was on the verge of becoming “hot,” and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin knew he would have to confront its deadly potential. He turned to Israeli Air Force commander General David Ivry to secretly plan a daring surgical strike on the reactor—a never-before-contemplated mission that would prove to be one of the most remarkable military operations of all time. Written with the full and exclusive cooperation of the Israeli Air Force high command, General Ivry (ret.), and all of the eight mission pilots (including Ilan Ramon, who become Israel’s first astronaut and perished tragically in the shuttle Columbia disaster), Raid on the Sun tells the extraordinary story of how Israel plotted the unthinkable: defying its U.S. and European allies to eliminate Iraq’s nuclear threat. In the tradition of Black Hawk Down, journalist Rodger Claire re-creates a gripping tale of personal sacrifice and survival, of young pilots who trained in the United States on the then-new, radically sophisticated F-16 fighter bombers, then faced a nearly insurmountable challenge: how to fly the 1,000-plus-kilometer mission to Baghdad and back on one tank of fuel. He recounts Israeli intelligence’s incredible “black ops” to sabotage construction on the French reactor and eliminate Iraqi nuclear scientists, and he gives the reader a pilot’s-eye view of the action on June 7, 1981, when the planes roared off a runway on the Sinai Peninsula for the first successful destruction of a nuclear reactor in history.
Download or read book Death Dust written by William C. Potter and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2023-12-19 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The postwar period saw increased interest in the idea of relatively easy-to-manufacture but devastatingly lethal radiological munitions whose use would not discriminate between civilian and military targets. Death Dust explores the largely unknown history of the development of radiological weapons (RW)—weapons designed to disperse radioactive material without a nuclear detonation—through a series of comparative case studies across the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, Iraq, and Egypt. The authors illuminate the historical drivers of and impediments to radiological weapons innovation. They also examine how new, dire geopolitical events—such as the war in Ukraine—could encourage other states to pursue RW and analyze the impact of the spread of such weapons on nuclear deterrence and the nonproliferation regime. Death Dust presents practical, necessary steps to reduce the likelihood of a resurgence of interest in and pursuit of radiological weapons by state actors.
Download or read book Saddam is Iraq written by Jerrold M. Post and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2002 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Identified as a member of the "axis of evil" by President George W. Bush, Saddam Hussein's Iraq continues to pose a major threat to the region and to Western society. Saddam has doggedly pursued the development of weapons of mass destruction, despite U.N. sanctions imposed at the conclusion of the Gulf crisis. To deal effectively with Saddam Hussein requires a clear understanding of his motivations, perceptions, and decision-making. To provide a framework for this complex political leader, a comprehensive political psychology profile has been developed, and his actions since the crisis analyzed in the context of this political psychology assessment
Download or read book The Age of Deception written by Mohamed ElBaradei and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2011-05-03 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When, in 1997, the International Atomic Energy Agency unanimously elected Mohamed ElBaradei as its next Director General, few observers could have forecast the dramatic role he would play over the next 12 years. Certainly, the stage onto which Dr. ElBaradei stepped - featuring Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Kim Jong-Il's North Korea, Muammar al-Gaddafi's Libya, and the Islamic Republic of Iran - gave ample opportunity for high-stakes and high-profile decision-making. But no one could have predicted that ElBaradei would be 'the man in the middle' of so many nuclear conflicts over so sustained a period of time. And after he and the IAEA were jointly awarded the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, his role as middle-man only gained intensity.In The Age of Deception, Dr. ElBaradei gives us his account from the centre of the nuclear fray. Readers will sit at the dinner table with Iraqi officials in Baghdad, listening as they bleakly predict the coming war. They will eavesdrop on the exchanges between UN inspectors and U.S. officials observing the behind-the-scenes formulation of an approach to foreign policy and diplomacy that would come to characterise the Bush administration. We gain a feel for the difficulty of the IAEA inspectors' struggle to maintain objectivity when trust has been broken, or when the press - or governments - are playing fast and loose with the facts. The Age of Deception is a story of human imperfection, of modern society struggling to come to grips with the multiple dimensions of human insecurity.
Download or read book Nuclear Weapons and Coercive Diplomacy written by Todd S. Sechser and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-02 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Are nuclear weapons useful for coercive diplomacy? This book argues that they are useful for deterrence but not for offensive purposes.
Download or read book Tempting Fate written by Paul C. Avey and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2019-11-15 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why would countries without nuclear weapons even think about fighting nuclear-armed opponents? A simple answer is that no one believes nuclear weapons will be used. But that answer fails to consider why nonnuclear state leaders would believe that in the first place. In this superb unpacking of the dynamics of conflict under conditions of nuclear monopoly, Paul C. Avey argues that the costs and benefits of using nuclear weapons create openings that weak nonnuclear actors can exploit. Tempting Fate uses four case studies to show the key strategies available to nonnuclear states: Iraqi decision-making under Saddam Hussein in confrontations with the United States; Egyptian leaders' thinking about the Israeli nuclear arsenal during wars in 1969–70 and 1973; Chinese confrontations with the United States in 1950, 1954, and 1958; and a dispute that never escalated to war, the Soviet-United States tensions between 1946 and 1948 that culminated in the Berlin Blockade. Those strategies include limiting the scope of the conflict, holding chemical and biological weapons in reserve, seeking outside support, and leveraging international non-use norms. Counterintuitively, conventionally weak nonnuclear states are better positioned to pursue these strategies than strong ones, so that wars are unlikely when the nonnuclear state is powerful relative to its nuclear opponent. Avey demonstrates clearly that nuclear weapons cast a definite but limited shadow, and while the world continues to face various nuclear challenges, understanding conflict in nuclear monopoly will remain a pressing concern for analysts and policymakers.
Download or read book Unclear Physics written by Målfrid Braut-Hegghammer and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2016-08-01 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many authoritarian leaders want nuclear weapons, but few manage to acquire them. Autocrats seeking nuclear weapons fail in different ways and to varying degrees—Iraq almost managed it; Libya did not come close. In Unclear Physics, Malfrid Braut-Hegghammer compares the two failed nuclear weapons programs, showing that state capacity played a crucial role in the trajectory and outcomes of both projects. Braut-Hegghammer draws on a rich set of new primary sources, collected during years of research in archives, fieldwork across the Middle East, and interviews with scientists and decision makers from both states. She gained access to documents and individuals that no other researcher has been able to consult. Her book tells the story of the Iraqi and Libyan programs from their origins in the late 1950s and 1960s until their dismantling.This book reveals contemporary perspectives from scientists and regime officials on the opportunities and challenges facing each project. Many of the findings challenge the conventional wisdom about clandestine weapons programs in closed authoritarian states and their prospects of success or failure. Braut-Hegghammer suggests that scholars and analysts ought to pay closer attention to how state capacity affects nuclear weapons programs in other authoritarian regimes, both in terms of questioning the actual control these leaders have over their nuclear weapons programs and the capability of their scientists to solve complex technical challenges.
