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

[Skooz]

bump

[DuncanWaring]

Don't be silly. Everyone knows aluminum tubes are essential in the production of baby formula.

[Calpernia]

Baghdad’s interest in high-strength, high-specification aluminum tubes—dual-use items controlled under Annex 3 of the Ongoing Monitoring and Verification Plan as possible centrifuge rotors—is best explained by its efforts to produce 81-mm rockets

[jveritas]

Moreover 900 mm long tube seems long for a Howitzer 81 mm caliber but I will differ this to military experts on FR.

[Lekker 1]

Bush Lied ..these were used for bicycles

I was thinking three-foot long fence posts that you could crush with your hands.

[jveritas]

No direct information but I doubt very much that they were going to be used to manufacture 50,000 81 mm Howitzer, not ammunition for Howitzer but the Howitzer launcher itself. Do you know about any army who possesses 50,000 81 mm Howitzer Launchers?

[P-40]

these were used for bicycles

That's what I was thinking. Perhaps Saddam was getting into cycling and was going to make some...Cannondales.

[jveritas]

That is very interesting information.

[edpc]

What is in this info that would lead someone to believe that they were to be used for centrifuging and not as rocket parts?

It's not necessarily here, but if you combine the tubes, 500 tons of uranium at Tuwaitha, Mahdi Obeidi's book The Bomb in my Garden, and A.Q. Khan's proliferation of nuclear know-how across the Middle East, it's a short trip to realization.

[jveritas]

I like this graphic :)

[michaelt]

What if the 81mm also refers to the inner diameter of the tube that is used to launch the rocket?

[Allegra]

Headache to who? :)

The media. The liberals. The Ba'athists. ;-)

[nutmeg]

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my ‘miscellaneous’ ping list.

[b4its2late]

But, but, but...... I thought there were no WMD's in Iraq?

Thanks for your hard work!

[nutmeg]

You are doing OUTSTANDING work, jveritas! Thank you once again.

[jveritas]

That is what I thought :)

[Zeppo]

Yes, if they are implying that the tubes were intended to serve as rocket housings rather than launch tubes.

It is my understanding (but I can not quote a source off the top of my head) that no other components were found by the ISG to have been part of a procurement designed to produce either 81mm rockets, or tubes to launch rockets, and that therefore it is nothing more than idle speculation to claim that the tubes were intended for use in rocket or artillery launch applications...

[jveritas]

You are weclome nutmeg.

[BMC1]

More for the MSM to ignore

[jveritas]

Anytime.