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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (418821)	6/26/2003 12:18:49 AM
From: tejek	Respond to of 769670

Iraqi Provides Pre-'91 Nuke Program Items By JOHN J. LUMPKIN .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - A former Iraqi nuclear scientist has provided American authorities parts and documents from Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons program from over 12 years ago, a U.S. intelligence official said Wednesday. The scientist, Mahdi Shukur Obeidi, said he had kept the parts buried in his garden at his Baghdad home on the orders of Saddam's government, according to the intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Once sanctions against Iraq ended, the material was to be dug up and used to reconstitute a program to enrich uranium to make a nuclear weapon, Obeidi claimed to U.S. officials. U.S. authorities believe Obeidi's statements are credible, and they are regarded as evidence that Iraq had an effort to hide parts of its original programs from U.N. inspectors. <font color=red>Still, the intelligence official acknowledged the find was not the ``smoking gun'' that U.S. authorities are seeking to prove the Bush administration's claims that Iraq had an active program to develop a nuclear weapon.<font color=black> Before the 1991 Gulf War, Obeidi headed Iraq's program to make centrifuges that would enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, the official said. Most or all of that program was dismantled after U.N. inspections in the early 1990s. Details of Obeidi's activities during the past decade were not immediately available, although he was interviewed often by inspectors from the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency in 2002, the official said. Obeidi turned over a two-foot-tall stack of documents that includes detailed designs for centrifuges, intelligence officials said. Obeidi told intelligence officials the parts from his garden were among the more difficult-to-produce components of a centrifuge. Assembled, the components would not be useful in making much uranium. Hundreds of centrifuges are necessary to make enough to construct a nuclear weapon in such programs. Obeidi and his family have left Iraq, the intelligence official said. Since the war, U.S. teams looking for evidence of Iraq's alleged chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs have been chasing leads and tips from Iraqis who stand to win reward money offered for evidence. So far no weapons have been found. Before the second Gulf War, U.S. and allied intelligence agencies said they had evidence that Iraq was seeking to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program, although some of that evidence has since been debunked. Other evidence, such as reports that Iraq tried to import precision-made tubes for centrifuges, was hotly debated, with some experts saying those tubes were for conventional weapons. Earlier this year, the U.N. agency said there was no new evidence or indications that Iraq was working to revive the program. 06/25/03 23:36 EDT Copyright 2003 The Associated Press.

To: Sully- who wrote (418821)	6/26/2003 12:36:08 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Twelve years it was buried in the ground and you think its the smoking gun that Top Gun so desperately needs to regain his credibility! That's really funny!

To: Sully- who wrote (418821)	6/26/2003 1:57:21 AM
From: Skywatcher	Respond to of 769670

W is incompetent: news.bbc.co.uk and GEE! no comment from W and crew US plans for Iraq 'flawed' By Michael Buchanan BBC correspondent in Washington A senior American official who spent two months helping the United States' post-war effort in Iraq has strongly criticised reconstruction plans. In his first broadcast interview since leaving Iraq, Timothy Carney has told the BBC it is clear the White House did not think through its post-war plans and that there was a lack of resources and priority given to reconstruction efforts. Mr Carney, a former American ambassador with decades of experience in post-conflict zones, spent eight weeks in Iraq trying to get the Ministry of Industry and Minerals up and running. He says that he and the rest of the reconstruction team were surprised by the amount of looting they discovered and the lack of attention US forces paid to securing the ministries. He calls the initial structure - in which the reconstruction team were under the command of the military - a grievous flaw as officers either did not understand or did not give enough priority to rebuilding Iraq. He says telephone communications were simply inadequate and that reconstruction efforts were further hampered by a lack of troops. He accuses the White House of failing to think through post-war plans, saying he is unaware of any meeting taking place on the issue before the end of last year. Nobody at the Pentagon or the White House was available for comment. CC