[Marine_Uncle]

Thanks for the lastest translation. I don't see why people are having a hard time with the tube dimensions. Simply think of a rocket 3" diameter some 40" long, with some fins on the back that pop out once the rocket leaves it's launching tube. It is no more. The issue since day one, is. Where these tubes to be used as rockets or where they to be used in a centrifuge cascade system.
It really is that simple. If destined for rocket manufacturing, there is no issue, other then the usual arguments revolving around oil for food verse oil for continued personal gain and arms build up.
It the tubes where destined for a uranium gas phase extraction process. Then obviously they where in violation of hiding a long term uranium enrichment process program, not permitted under the UN sanctions.

[jveritas]

The question is why do they need such a huge quantity of Tubes. 50,000 is a huge numbers of 81 mm Howitzers!!!

[blaster88]

It really is that simple.

Really, it is simpler than that. The tubes are controlled by the Nuclear Suppliers Group (an adjunct of IAEA) because they are suitable for use in centrifuges. High tensile strength aluminum tubes of 75mm or greater. It doesn't even matter whether they were meant to be rocket tubes or not, it was not legal for Iraq to buy them - doubly illegal under the sanctions regime.

The "well, they really only wanted them for conventional rockets to blow up Kurds" explanation may hearten some people, but it doesn't make me feel any better. If it was all hunky-dory, it wouldn't have been covert. Even Colin Powell got it:

He is so determined that has made repeated covert attempts to acquire high-specification aluminum tubes from 11 different countries, even after inspections resumed. These tubes are controlled by the Nuclear Suppliers Group precisely because they can be used as centrifuges for enriching uranium.

By now, just about everyone has heard of these tubes and we all know that there are differences of opinion. There is controversy about what these tubes are for. Most U.S. experts think they are intended to serve as rotors in centrifuges used to enrich uranium. Other experts, and the Iraqis themselves, argue that they are really to produce the rocket bodies for a conventional weapon, a multiple rocket launcher.

Let me tell you what is not controversial about these tubes. First, all the experts who have analyzed the tubes in our possession agree that they can be adapted for centrifuge use.

Second, Iraq had no business buying them for any purpose. They are banned for Iraq. I am no expert on centrifuge tubes, but this is an old army trooper. I can tell you a couple things.

First, it strikes me as quite odd that these tubes are manufactured to a tolerance that far exceeds U.S. requirements for comparable rockets. Maybe Iraqis just manufacture their conventional weapons to a higher standard than we do, but I don't think so.

Second, we actually have examined tubes from several different batches that were seized clandestinely before they reached Baghdad. What we notice in these different batches is a progression to higher and higher levels of specification, including in the latest batch an anodized coating on extremely smooth inner and outer surfaces.

Why would they continue refining the specifications? Why would they continuing refining the specification, go to all that trouble for something that, if it was a rocket, would soon be blown into shrapnel when it went off?