1999, 2000 Iraqi memos: Procurement of 50000 Aluminum Tubes That Can Be Used For URANIUM ENRICHMENT.

Pentagon/FMSO website for Iraq Pre-war documents ^ | April 24 2006 | jveritas

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Rockets get hot and aluminum melts....

[freema]

ping for expertise and input

[jveritas]

You are absolutely correct eyespy.

[jveritas]

Document CMPC-2004-004402 is also a bid for the same type of Aluminum tubes but this one is for a quantity of 60,000 tubes and from Yugoslavia and the memo is dated May 14 2000.

PS: What is weird that both documents have synopsis on the Pentagon Website and neither one of the synopsis mentions the Aluminum Tubes despite that is has been a subject of great and inclusive debates since 2002!

[jveritas]

Document CMPC-2004-004402 is also a bid for the same type of Aluminum tubes but this one is for a quantity of 60,000 tubes and from Yugoslavia and the memo is dated May 14 2000.

PS: What is weird that both documents have synopsis on the Pentagon Website and neither one of the synopsis mentions the Aluminum Tubes despite that is has been a subject of great and inconclusive debates since 2002!

[Marine_Uncle]

"The quality level seems high for use in munitions....etc...."
I downloaded the pdf document blaster88 recommended. I did not have this in my collection.
Agree. As most everyone will. Perhaps my earlier on comments where somehow misinterpreted into thinking I believed the tubes where for rockets. I just was responding to earlier enquiries of folks possing questions, somewhat confused as to what a artillery shell is verse a rocket etc..
The evidence appears very strong that the tubes where not intendended for making rockets.

[ElkGroveDan]

Rockets get hot and aluminum melts.... ;

True, and while I am on your side in the doubtful column, I will point out that aluminum can be cast for use in extremely hot applications - engine blocks come to mind.

[Marine_Uncle]

"However if you link at what some freepers posted on this thread about Powell statements on these Aluminum tubes, it makes me think more and more that they were not intended for conventional 81 mm rockets."
And in this I have to agree with you. I downloaded the IAEA document blaster88 recommended. I am sure it is going to be a very informative read.

[Peach]

Now if we could get our Congressmen to actually start talking about this stuff, they could save themselves from defeat in November.

[expatpat]

I think you are doing terrific work. I'm just hoping that you can find a smoking gun. I never believed the tubes were intended for rockets, but I am hoping for something that will force reeasonable libs to accept the truth.

[avacado]

---But his attempt to procure them prior to the invasion was known, so any way we split it, the bastard was caught with his pants down.---

Yes indeed Saddam was caught with his pants down. But he has been caught with his pants down, ie, in breach of UN disarmament resolutions, for 12 years. The inspectors were finding banned Al Samud II missiles as late as Feb. 2003 and destroying them. They were also destroying warheads containing some 50 liters of mustard gas in Feb of 2003. It's all documented.

But the left doesn't care about 12 years of breaches of disarmament. The MSM drilled it into their tiny brains that it is ONLY about some HUGE volume of WMD.

[jveritas]

I am waiting for the Yellow Cake document to surface, now think what this will do to liberals and their media :)

[Shelayne]

Exactly. If it was OK for him to procure these tubes for rockets, why did he do it covertly? From what I understand--I will have to do more digging--it was OK for Saddam to have a certain kind of tube for rockets, but that is NOT what he was going for. He was covertly obtaining the dual-use tubes. Why?

[jveritas]

The MSM drilled it into their tiny brains that it is ONLY about some HUGE volume of WMD.

Absolutely correct, and even more correct when you attribute "tiny brains" to the liberal media :)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Now look at this:

SPECIFICATION: AL-ZN-MG-CU 215/ NO. 7075

We have an alloy with Zinc, Magnesium, Copper and aluminum...and of course Thickness = 3.3 mm

Isn't 3.3 mm a bit thin?

And why the ingredients in the alloy?

[jveritas]

In fact if you look at page 2 of document CMPC-2004-004402 (page 2 contain the Technical Specifications that are English) dated May/14/2000 you notice that the Aluminum Technical Specifications is even higher grade than what mentioned in CMPC-2004-00404 as it mentions Aluminum No 7075 T6 and it has some content of Titanium (Ti 0.2%) whereas the first bid does not have it. As Collin Powell said they Iraqis kept elevating the Technical specifications of these Aluminum tubes.

[avacado]

Okay, here's something interesting. The trading company mentioned in this document, Al-Bashair Trading Co. LTD, seems to be a front for the Assad family in Syria.

Here's a few interesting notes on the Al-Bashair Trading Co:

- The nephew of Zu Alhema al-Shaleesh, Assef al-Shaleesh, runs Al Bashair Trading Co., a front for the Assad family involved prior to the war in oil smuggling from Iraq and arms smuggling into the country. Al-Bashair has offices in Damascus, Beirut and Baghdad.

- Al Bashair Trading Co. participated in the smuggling of millions of dollars worth of sophisticated arms and equipment to Saddam Hussein for three years prior to the Iraqi leader's overthrow.

- Al Bashair executives met with North Korean firms before the war began, according to the Los Angeles daily. The paper's three-month investigation included the translation of 800 signed contracts found in the Al Bashair Trading Co. office shortly before U.S. troops entered Baghdad.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Very interesting.....we may not be able to eliminate the possibility that these tubes were for munitions, but everything we are seeing is that they are consistent with centrifuges....RIGHT?

And the quantities may be the REAL IMPORTANT element of these documents....cause I am guessing that Powell didn't have that factoid....

[Shelayne]

From Charles Duelfer's testimony to Congress (re:Nuclear Program)

One significant effort illustrating this was a high-speed rail gun program under the direction of two senior scientists associated with Iraq’s pre-1991 nuclear weapons program. Documents from this project show that the scientists were developing a rail gun designed to achieve speeds of 2-10 kilometers per second. The ostensible purpose for this research was development of an air defense gun, but these speeds are what are necessary to conduct experiments of metals compressing together at high speed as they do in a nuclear detonation. Scientists refer to these experiments as “equation of state” measurements.

Not only were these scientists developing a rail gun, but their laboratory also contained documents describing diagnostic techniques that are important for nuclear weapons experiments, such as flash x-ray radiography, laser velocimetry, and high-speed photography. Other documents found outside the laboratory described a high-voltage switch that can be used to detonate a nuclear weapon, laser detonation, nuclear fusion, radiation measurement, and radiation safety. These fields are certainly not related to air defense.

It is this combination of topics that makes us suspect this lab was intentionally focused on research applicable for nuclear weapons development.

We continued our efforts to determine if Iraq was seeking to develop technologies for a uranium enrichment capability. Iraq’s efforts to procure high tolerance aluminum tubes were examined. Ostensibly these tubes were for small rockets, but the manufacturing tolerances specified were much higher than would normally be required for this purpose. Technical reasons for the high tolerances were explained by a number of Iraqis associated with their acquisition, but there are still a number of discrepancies to examine with regard to these tubes.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches/2004/tenet_testimony_03302004.html (Sorry, I don't know how to post links!)

Taken all together, is there really any question about these tubes anymore? Bottom line is Saddam was not allowed to have or acquire these dual-use tubes at all.

[eyespysomething]

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