Posted on 10/26/2003 4:13:31 PM PST by TexKat
This slide released 05 February 2003 by the US State Department shows an aluminum tube found in Iraq that could be used to enrich uranium for use in weapons of mass destruction.(AFP-HO/File)
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US experts hunting for elusive weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have ignored depots containing much-publicized aluminum tubes that the administration of President George W. Bush used to illustrate alleged Iraqi nuclear ambitions.
The The Washington Post reported Sunday that in their march to Baghdad on April 8, US Marines charged past rows of warehouses at Ash Shaykhili that stored machine tools, consoles and instruments from the nuclear weapons program cut short by the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Inside, stacked in oblong wooden crates, were thousands of high-strength aluminum tubes, according to the report.
That equipment was central to the Bush administration's charge that President Saddam Hussein had resumed long-dormant efforts to build a nuclear weapon.
But combat units were not alone in passing the stockpiles by. Participants in the subsequent hunt for illegal arms said months elapsed without a visit to that and many other sites of activity that President Bush had called "a grave and gathering danger," The Post said.
Citing records made available to The Post and interviews with arms investigators from the United States, Britain and Australia, the paper said it did not require a comprehensive survey to find the central assertions of the Bush administration's prewar nuclear case to be insubstantial or untrue.
Although Hussein did not relinquish his nuclear ambitions or technical records, investigators said, it is now clear he had no active program to build a weapon, produce its key materials or obtain the technology he needed for either, the report said.
Among the closely held internal judgments of the Iraq Survey Group overseen by David Kay are that Iraq's nuclear weapons scientists did no significant arms-related work after 1991, that facilities with suspicious new construction proved benign, and that equipment of potential use to a nuclear program remained under seal or in civilian industrial use, according to the paper.
Most notably, investigators have judged the aluminum tubes to be "innocuous," according to Australian Brigadier General Stephen Meekin, who commands the Joint Captured Enemy Materiel Exploitation Center.
That finding is pivotal, because the Bush administration built its case on the proposition that Iraq aimed to use those tubes as centrifuge rotors to enrich uranium for the core of a nuclear warhead, The Post said.
By Barton Gellman, Washington Post Staff Writer
In their march to Baghdad on April 8, U.S. Marines charged past a row of eucalyptus trees that lined the boneyard of Iraq's thwarted nuclear dream. Sixty acres of warehouses behind the tree line, held under United Nations seal at Ash Shaykhili, stored machine tools, consoles and instruments from the nuclear weapons program cut short by the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Thirty miles to the north and west, Army troops were rolling through the precincts of the Nasr munitions plant. Inside, stacked in oblong wooden crates, were thousands of high-strength aluminum tubes.
That equipment, and Iraq's effort to buy more of it overseas, were central to the Bush administration's charge that President Saddam Hussein had resumed long-dormant efforts to build a nuclear weapon. The lead combat units had more urgent priorities that day, but they were not alone in passing the stockpiles by. Participants in the subsequent hunt for illegal arms said months elapsed without a visit to Nasr and many other sites of activity that President Bush had called "a grave and gathering danger."
According to records made available to The Washington Post and interviews with arms investigators from the United States, Britain and Australia, it did not require a comprehensive survey to find the central assertions of the Bush administration's prewar nuclear case to be insubstantial or untrue. Although Hussein did not relinquish his nuclear ambitions or technical records, investigators said, it is now clear he had no active program to build a weapon, produce its key materials or obtain the technology he needed for either.
Among the closely held internal judgments of the Iraq Survey Group, overseen by David Kay as special representative of CIA (news - web sites) Director George J. Tenet, are that Iraq's nuclear weapons scientists did no significant arms-related work after 1991, that facilities with suspicious new construction proved benign, and that equipment of potential use to a nuclear program remained under seal or in civilian industrial use.
Most notably, investigators have judged the aluminum tubes to be "innocuous," according to Australian Brig. Gen. Stephen D. Meekin, who commands the Joint Captured Enemy Materiel Exploitation Center, the largest of a half-dozen units that report to Kay. That finding is pivotal, because the Bush administration built its case on the proposition that Iraq aimed to use those tubes as centrifuge rotors to enrich uranium for the core of a nuclear warhead.
Judged? Innocuous? I judge them differently.
Saddam admitted he had lots of different WMDs. His own people released a list of stuff in 1998.
The UN, France, Germany, etc., all agreed that Saddam had WMDs (remember, Saddam admitted he had the stuff!!)
Clinton and the Democrats stated that Saddam had stuff (they believed that Saddam was telling the truth.)
About 20% of what Saddam claimed to have was accounted for/destroyed, etc. Saddam refused to account for the remaining 80%.
The Democrats, the UN, Clinton, etc, AND GWBush insisted that Saddam account for the missing 80% that Saddam had admitted he had. Everyone threated SEVERE CONSEQUENCES if Saddam failed.
The Democrats, the UN, the Axis of Weasel obviously felt that SEVERE CONSEQUENCES meant a severe tongue lashing and another UN Resolution, even more serious than the one before.
GWBush took the Congressional authorization to mean "You're OUTTA THERE!!!" - and Operation Iraqi Freeedom (OIF) was started to free Iraq from the horrible oppression of Saddam Hussein, and to see if the missing 80% of WMDs that Saddam admitted he had could be actually accounted for.
GWBush indicated that the uncertainty was one reason for OIF, and another reason was Saddam's support for terrorism (his giving families of Suicide Bombers in Israel $25,000, and his Salmon Pak training camp that included a airplane fueslage to practice hijacking planes!!).
So, other than a few facts, what is really bothering you??? If you can't see the facts, perhaps your head is located in a dark place that also makes it difficult to breathe. May I suggest you withdraw it first - lest more brain cells be killed off.
Mike
No. That, my dear Troll, would be the Senate's refusal to sack WJC in 1998. There's not a close second.
Fallacy. We were not looking for a nuclear bomb. We never said they had one. Straw Man Fallacy -- look it up. After you learn a bit of logic, you may become more reasonable....
I heard somewhere that most of the hijackers for the September 11 attacks was from Saudi Arabia, and that just after the attacks that we allowed Saudi Arabia to fly all over the US to pick up members of the Bin Laden family so they'd be safe in that country, (S.A.)? Has anyone else heard this/have any more info? I'd hate to think it was.
Then, using the name LarryLament, also at 5:17pm, you posted:
well you know more than I do but I was disturbed when I confirmed Bush whisked the Bin Ladens out of the US after 911.That stinks real bad and has gone unanswered.
Go back to DU, brainstorm with your fellow DUmmies, AND COME UP WITH A BETTER DISRUPTER STRATEGY. Jeez...
What Aluminum tube is good for is making solid rockets. Bond a little rubber on the inside, cast in the propellant, and presto you have a solid rocket motor. The sizes of Aluminum tube that are in question are about the correct size for a 2.75 rocket or small air to air.
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