NYT Article Strikingly Similar to Washington Post Article from August 2003

(snip from another article)

...Gellman writes that Meekin’s team had uncovered the aluminum tubes cited by the CIA and the administration before the war as evidence of Iraq’s efforts to reconstitute its nuclear program. Meekin told Gellman, however, that investigators have determined the tubes to be "innocuous." Gellman quotes Meekin as saying the "tubes were used for rockets."
But within a week, Kay and Meekin had issued rebuttals to Gellman’s claims. Instead of running their letters on the editorial page, the Post chose to bury these in its "Free for All" page deep inside its Saturday edition. Meekin wrote that Gellman had misrepresented both Meekin’s mission and his comments on the aluminum tubes. Meekin stressed that he had told Gellman that his unit’s job was focused on Iraq’s conventional arms program.
He wrote that he had not given Gellman "assessments or views" on the status of Kay’s nuclear inspections. Meekin also disputed Gellman’s interpretation of his judgment that the aluminum tubes were "innocuous."
He wrote that he had made clear that the reference was to the contribution of the tubes within the context of Iraq’s overall conventional capabilities. He wrote, "I did not make any judgment on the suitability of the 81-millimeter aluminum tubes as components in a nuclear program."
Kay’s letter affirmed that Meekin has never reported to him in any capacity and he called Gellman on several other key points in the article. Kay’s bottom line: Gellman’s article gave the "false impression" that judgments about Iraq’s nuclear program could already be made. Too much work remained to be done, wrote Kay, before any conclusions can be drawn.
Shortly thereafter, the Post published two more corrections on its Internet Web site. The Post noted that Gellman had misstated the size of the work force searching for WMD by a factor of 10. And he overstated the technical credentials of one scientist working on Kay’s team.
---by Notra Trulock, Associate Editor of the AIM Report; can be reached at aimeditor@yahoo.com.

Since the NY Times insists on bringing up aluminum tubes again, I'll link this. Makes you wonder just who they are protecting:

French Freighter intercepted by Germans in Egypt carrying Nuclear Material

See also:

To: thegreatbeast
Maybe this, though it doesn't mention Egypt:

German businessman allegedly involved in nuclear shipment to North Korea
The director of a German company suspected of supplying aluminium tubes for North Korea's nuclear programme has been taken in for questioning. Prosecutors confirmed the move following a report in the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel which said that 22 tonnes of aluminium tubes were loaded onto a French ship in Hamburg earlier this month. The shipment, officially on its way to China, was stopped by German authorities. Aluminium tubes can used to produce enriched uranium. During talks with the United States and China on Thursday, North Korean officials reportedly admitted that the country has nuclear weapons.

23 posted on 04/26/2003 1:03:20 PM PDT by The Hon. Galahad Threepwood

I can see where the IAEA and the UN and any journalists who think these orgs should be the ones playing a supervisory role over our foreign policy might be a wee bit nervous about the linkage between the aluminum tubes and Iraq.

[In many of these articles they press avoids even using the term 'tubes,' preferring instead to use 'parts,' 'rods,' 'materials,' etc. - perhaps because if they use the phrase 'aluminum tubes' in reference to Libyan or N Korean nuke programs it might bring to mind the "tubes are for rockets only" spin associated with Iraq and make people think Powell's UN speech might have been right after all.:

North Korean diplomat implicated in nuclear plot: German press
Agence France-Presse | September 21, 2003

HAMBURG, Germany (AFP) - A former North Korean diplomat is accused of ordering material from a German firm that could be used in the production of nuclear weapons, Germany's Der Spiegel reported in its Monday edition. The news magazine said a German businessman would go on trial in Stuttgart, southwest Germany, next month in connection with the case.

The diplomat was named by Spiegel as Yun Ho Jin. It said he used to work as a Pyongyang representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. According to Der Spiegel, Yun Ho Jin ordered special aluminium tubes from the businessman which, experts say, are used to build gas ultracentrifuges in which uranium is enriched.

The equipment was impounded in April after being loaded on board a ship.

The unidentified businessman, who got to know the diplomat in the late 1980s, is accused of breaching trade export laws and "attempts to encourage production of a nuclear weapon."

Experts from the IAEA, the German foreign ministry and the German foreign intelligence service are expected to testify, the magazine added.

All of our Freep efforts are really nice, as with CW's work in deconstructing the writing of this Slimesey article.

However, when the RNC and our Pres cannot articulate any of these points -- as show so glaringly in this week's debate. Our Pres and his administration act like deer in headlights instead of warriors of the TRUTH with of all of this stuff in Iraq-- and it makes me wonder why we bother to Freep?

I've said it in another post somewhere but how come the administratin relies on US for its talking points?

How come they can't hire normal speechwriters to really swoop down for the kill on these Iraq points in debate? Geez louise. Hope Cheney makes mincemeat of pretty boy.

Well, telling a lie only requires a soundbite or two; refuting a lie often requires much more detail than can be stuffed into the average media-ready soundbite, particularly when the disloyal opposition is so prolific with its propaganda.

Since the old media won't do its job then we'll just have to do it for them.

So, back to what I was doing on this thread- here's another article focusing on pesky aluminum, this time concerning Iran's nuclear program- note that the word 'tubes' is not used in this Wash Po snippet, nor is there another description of the form, though given the centrifuge context I suspect that the aluminum is probably the infamous tubing :

(snip) The officials said the two countries exchanged a series of diplomatic messages after the United States and Israel alerted Russia to a suspicious aluminum shipment on a Russian boat that was headed for Iran via the Black Sea soon after President Bush took office Jan. 21. [2001] According to the American version, Russian inspectors boarded the vessel and reported that the aluminum was intended for aircraft manufacture, an explanation not accepted by the United States. The shipment was allowed to proceed to Iran.
The precise origin of the aluminum is not known, but U.S. officials said the deal was arranged by a Russian metals trader. The officials said that the United States and Israel have evidence that the aluminum was delivered to Iranian institutions connected with what they suspect is Iran's nuclear weapons project.
The aluminum shipment is the latest in a series of nuclear proliferation disputes that have clouded U.S.-Russian relations in recent years. U.S. officials said Bush is expected to raise proliferation concerns with Russian President Vladimir Putin during their first face-to-face meeting Saturday in the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana without going into detail about specific cases.
"It's a big deal," said one well-placed administration official, referring to fears that Iran is experimenting with different ways of enriching uranium to produce bomb-grade material that would serve as the basis for a crude nuclear weapon.
U.S. officials said they suspected that the aluminum alloy delivered to Iran was intended for the manufacture of rotor blades used in gas centrifuges that separate out the enriched uranium that can produce a chain reaction for a nuclear explosion. U.S. experts say that Iran has been attempting to acquire centrifuge technology, as well as other technology for enriching uranium, for much of the last decade as part of a larger effort to build an atomic bomb. (/snip)
-- "U.S., Russia At Odds on Iranian Deal ; Bush to Raise Atomic Issues at Summit ," By Michael Dobbs, Washington Post Staff Writer via 14 posted on 03/10/2003 1:54:47 AM PST by piasa

You are right. Gotta go for the truth. I was just kinda let down with Bush. Thanks for the research. Freepers would actually make great CIA agents those guys have forgotten how to do their jobs.

Thanks for the ping! Barstow shows up with an interesting group here (Hersh, Woodward, Pincus, etc.) which seems to overlap with Joe Wilson and Ray McGovern's anti-intelligence lobby crowd:

IRE Conferences

Especially see tape 083 listed in this pdf file catalog, covering one of the conference lectures, evidently:

Sound Images, Inc. Order Form • 2003 IRE Specials

083 - Covering intelligence agencies

James Bamford, Walter Pincus

! 1 Audiotape - IRE03-083

! 1 Audio CD - IRE03-083C

Bamford recently wrote a muckraking expose of the NSA in the spirit of Philip Agee and Victor Marchetti's anti-CIA books.

That gang is starting to get on my nerves.

Pincus really gets around.

I noticed Jack Anderson cofounded that IRE group. He's kind of the link between the old Drew Pearson left-wing muckraking operation at the Post and the post-Hersh/Woodward generation.

Thanks for the ping!

Valerie Plame was involved in the aluminum tube controversy ... and after employing lawfare against Scooter Libby, is now running for office in New Mexico, apparently after a fresh move to the district. She is with a movement called Global Zero.

Also a June2001 shipment to Jordan... in that case the tubes were likely intended for Syria...

Did they ever name the Russian metals trader?

The precise origin of the aluminum is not known, but U.S. officials said the deal was arranged by a Russian metals trader. The officials said that the United States and Israel have evidence that the aluminum was delivered to Iranian institutions connected with what they suspect is Iran's nuclear weapons project.

I'm not sure, but here's a link the original article you're quoting: U.S., RUSSIA BICKER OVER SHIPMENT TO IRANIANS I assume it was someone close to Marc Rich.