[Who was also clearly telling the truth by the way. That untold story is getting fresher every day.]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5497-2003Jul30.html
By Walter Pincus and Kevin Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, July 31, 2003; Page A01
Despite vigorous efforts, the U.S. government has been
unsuccessful so far in finding key senior Iraqi scientists to
support its prewar claims that former president Saddam Hussein was
pursuing an aggressive program to develop nuclear, biological and
chemical weapons, according to senior administration officials and
members of Congress who have been briefed recently on the subject.
The sources said four senior scientists and more than a dozen at
lower levels who worked for the Iraqi government have been
interviewed by U.S. officials under the direction of the CIA. Some
scientists have been arrested and held for months, others have
made deals in return for information and at least one has agreed
to be interviewed outside Iraq.
No matter the circumstances, all of the scientists interviewed
have denied that Hussein had reconstituted his nuclear weapons
program or developed and hidden chemical or biological weapons
since United Nations inspectors left in 1998. Several key Iraqi
officials questioned the significance of evidence cited by the
Bush administration to suggest that Hussein was stepping up
efforts to develop new weapons of mass destruction programs.
The White House, for instance, has cited the case of nuclear
scientist Mahdi Obeidi, who recently dug up plans and components
for a gas centrifuge that he said he buried in 1991 at the end of
the Persian Gulf War. The White House has pointed to the discovery
as a sign of Hussein's continuing nuclear ambitions, but Obeidi
told his interrogators that Iraq's nuclear program was dormant in
the years before war began in March.
The sources said Obeidi also disputed evidence cited by the
administration -- namely Iraq's purchase of aluminum tubes that
various officials said were for a new centrifuge program to enrich
uranium for nuclear bombs. Obeidi said the tubes were for rockets,
as Iraq had said before the war.
Full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A5497-2003Jul30.html