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THE BATTAi
Pulling for a good cause
Jonathan elites, a junior finance major, leads Maggies in a tug
of war at Lambda Chi Alpha's 4th annual Watermelon Bash.
RANDAL FORD • THE BATTALION
The groups compete to win money, which they donate to char
ities, and canned food to donate to Brazos Valley Food Bank.
Film dissects German
nuclear weapon lint
NEWS IN BRIEF
Iraqis vote yes or no for
Hussein, their only choice
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) — The victory ral
lies are set and the tributes are ready. In an
Iraqi yes-or-no vote on re-electing Saddam
Hussein, the only cliffhanger in Tuesday’s
vote is whether the two-decade Iraqi leader
will beat his last showing: 99.96 percent.
In Iraq, where many believe war with the
United States is coming, that 1995 result for
Saddam is now seen as somewhat tepid.
“This time, 100 percent!” worker Mayad
Aiwan cried Sunday. “Because the Iraqi peo
ple love our leader!”
But as the ballot on which only Saddam’s
name appears suggests, it’s not as if Saddam’s
people have much choice.
Best-selling author Ambrose
dies Sunday of lung cancer
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Stephen
Ambrose, a once-obscure history professor
catapulted to prominence by his best-selling
books that made aging World War II veterans
hometown heroes again, died Sunday of lung
cancer. He was 66.
Family members were with Ambrose, a
longtime smoker who was diagnosed in April,
when he died at a Bay St. Louis, Miss., hospi
tal, said his son, Hugh.
At the National D-Day Museum, which
Ambrose founded, his portrait was placed
near the entrance and a sign noted his death.
For much of his career, Ambrose was a lit
tle-known history professor. He burst onto the
best-seller list less than a decade ago with his
1994 book “D-Day June 6, 1944: The
Climactic Battle of World War II.”
Based in large part on interviews with vet
erans, the book recounted the chaotic, bloody
beach invasions of Normandy from the
American soldier’s perspective.
NEW YORK (AP) — A new
investigative film traces the
roots of the Iraq nuclear crisis to
links between German industry
and Baghdad’s bomb builders,
and questions the lenient sen
tence — probation — handed a
German engineer for treason in
aiding the project.
The documentary, “Stealing
the Fire,” also offers a rare
close-up look at a “prolifera-
tor,” the engineer Karl-Heinz
Schaab, who emerges on film as
a bland, gray, fastidious 68-
year-old technician who protests
he’s “too small to be turned into
a scapegoat for the others.”
Blueprints and other docu
ments Schaab and associates
brought to Iraq in the late 1980s,
along with Schaab’s own hands-
on skills, were a vital boost to
Baghdad’s development of gas
centrifuges — machines whose
ultra-fast spinning “enriches”
uranium by separating U-235,
the stuff of nuclear bombs, from
non-fissionable U-238.
Much of Iraq’s nuclear infra
structure was subsequently
wrecked by American and allied
bombing in the 1991 Gulf War
and in 1998. More was
destroyed during U.N. inspec
tions inside Iraq in the 1990s,
and Baghdad officials deny they
are working on atomic weapons
today.
But reconnaissance photos
released by the Bush adminis
tration this week, as it seeks
support for a potential war
against Iraq, indicate the Iraqis
have been rebuilding sites previ
ously used for nuclear develop
ment. “Stealing the Fire” looks
at the source of these capabili
ties.
Iraq was failing with other
enrichment technologies when
German centrifuge experts
Bruno Stemmier and Walter
Busse, recruited by a Gennan
company, H&H Metallform,
came to Baghdad in 1988 j,,-
sold the Iraqis old designs fc'
centrifuges. The next
brought Schaab, who provifcj
components, technical rep®
and, most important, a si
design for an advanced “s t
critical” centrifuge.
The design, classified sccri
in Germany, was used inenni
mg nuclear power fuel atfe
European government consu.
tium Urenco, for which asm
Schaab-owned comp®
worked as a subcontractor. Di
Iraqis paid $62,000 for thek,
documents.
I think they
wanted the Schaab
story to disappear.
It was intensely
embarrassing.
— David Albright
physicist and U.N.
inspection team member
A German court eventual
— on June 29, 1999 — convict
ed Schaab of treason and sen
tenced him to five years'impns-
onment and a $32,000 fine
then suspended the prison ten:
because he previously served!:
months in a Brazilian jail.
The light sentence k
received raised questions, Ip
ever, among nonproliferatiot
specialists. American physicist
David Albright, who wasonik
U.N. inspection team, suggeste
that the German govemiM:!
wanted to minimize public pet
ception of Schaab’s crime.
“I think they wanted
Schaab story to disappear. lus
intensely embarrassing
Albright says in “Stealing i
Fire.”
, I
hr
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Volume 109
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