These guys just can't tell the truth....
Al
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Arms-Control Group Says U.S. Inflated Libya's Nuclear Bid
By WILLIAM J. BROAD
Published: March 25, 2004
ekindling debate on how close Libya actually came to acquiring a nuclear bomb, a private arms-control group says the Bush administration overstated the number of devices the country had for making uranium fuel.
The group, the Institute for Science and International Security, based in Washington, said yesterday that the administration had given an inaccurate briefing to reporters last week at the Energy Department's nuclear weapons lab in Oak Ridge, Tenn. At that briefing, officials displayed a dozen uranium centrifuges from what they said was a cache of about 4,000 that Libya had obtained before agreeing in December to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.
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The institute, which has done extensive research on uranium centrifuges, said its own inquiries, including interviews with federal and overseas experts, found that Libya had obtained 4,000 casings for centrifuges, but that few if any had the finely tooled rotors that are the machine's heart.
A spokeswoman for the Energy Department replied that Libya had the parts and raw material for making the centrifuges, if not thousands of working machines. "Libya had a nuclear weapons program — that's not in dispute," said the spokeswoman, Jeanne Lopatto. As for the 4,000 centrifuges, she said, the Libyans "either had the parts in hand, or the ability to make them."
She added that Libya had many tons of a special high-strength steel "which would make a lot of rotors."
Centrifuges are complex devices and their rotors are hard to make. They must spin so fast that a wobble can throw them out of alignment and destroy the machine. Without working rotors, said David Albright, the institute's president, Libya would have been "several years from being able to produce enough highly enriched uranium for a bomb."
"The administration has distorted what was found in Libya, with the implication that it was very close to having a nuclear weapon," he said.
After Libya publicly renounced its weapons program, the Bush administration and Britain tended to portray the project as large and aggressive, while the International Atomic Energy Agency said Libya was several years away from producing a nuclear weapon.
In a report last month, the agency said Libya had obtained two advanced centrifuges of the type known as P-2, for Pakistan-2, had ordered 5,000 more and "had received a considerable number of parts, mainly casings." It added that shipments for the advanced machines contained "no additional rotors."
At the briefing in Oak Ridge on March 15, White House and Energy Department officials showed a dozen casings for centrifuges, flanked by guards armed with assault rifles. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham gave the main briefing, and a White House official spoke of the 4,000 centrifuges. Many television and newspaper reports, including one in The New York Times, quoted the administration as saying Libya had surrendered 4,000 centrifuges.
Corey Hinderstein, a researcher for the security institute, investigated that claim and learned from an Oak Ridge employee involved in the briefing that the 4,000 figure referred to casings, according to a memorandum she wrote to Mr. Albright, the group's president.
Mr. Albright said the administration had papered over a huge gap between centrifuge theory and practice. "It would take the Libyans a long time to learn how to make the sophisticated components," he said. "They might have failed because some of them are extremely difficult to make. The bottom line is that what they had was a far cry from a large number of working machines." |
