Letter to Mr Mohamed ElBaradei, Director of the IAEA, Vienna, Austria

 Request for investigation by the IAEA on the explosions of 10 and 11 October 2006 at « Forward Base Falcon », Baghdad (Iraq)

 Copies to Mr Kofi Annan & Mr Ban Ki-moon (United Nations)

Saintes, 27 December 2006

Dear Mr ElBaradei,

May we humbly draw your attention to some events that occurred in Baghdad on October 10 and 11, 2006. A large fire caused by an attack of shell-fire was reported around 10.40pm (local time) on October 10 in the US base « Forward Base Falcon », situated 13 km south-east of the centre of Baghdad and east of the international airport.

This fire struck a store of artillery munitions. "Enormous" explosions shook Baghdad for part of the night of 10-11 October, according to numerous witnesses, including correspondents for the BBC and Agence France Presse. Some of the explosions, filmed at a distance with zoom lenses, were broadcast live by the TV channel Aljazeera of the « Islamic Media Alliance » network. They were also filmed from about 1.8 km by US soldiers inside Camp Falcon. The camp authorities called a "Red Alert" and ordered their personnel to seek shelter in the bunkers.

The power of some of these explosions and their characteristics (luminous flash, fireball, mushroom cloud, effects of heat and blast) cause one to think they could involve nuclear munitions. A careful study of the documents available (videos accessible on the Net; communiqués and agency releases; information on the effects of nuclear weapons, on US tests and limited-yield nuclear warheads give some credence to this hypothesis.

For these reasons we ask you immediately to set up a detailed investigation and particularly to have the IAEA verify (in accordance with one of its missions) whether the explosives concerned did include tactical nukes and DU ammunitions, and whether certain explosions were or were not nuclear in nature. We may put at your disposal the results of the inquiry our NGO conducted for its part on this matter.

Yours respectfully,

Jean-Marie Matagne, President

Catherine Moreau, Secretary