« Early May, 2001 | Blog Index | July 10, 2001 »

May 9, 2001

The Energy Department proposes an alternative explanation for the aluminum tubes that CIA analyst "Joe" claims are for nuclear purposes. According to a later New York Times account, "It turned out, [the Department of Energy] reported, that Iraq had for years used high-strength aluminum tubes to make combustion chambers for slim rockets fired from launcher pods. Back in 1996, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency had even examined some of those tubes, also made of 7075-T6 aluminum, at a military complex, the Nasser metal fabrication plant in Baghdad, where the Iraqis acknowledged making rockets. According to the international agency, the rocket tubes, some 66,000 of them, were 900 millimeters in length, with a diameter of 81 millimeters and walls 3.3 millimeters thick. The tubes now sought by Iraq had precisely the same dimensions—a perfect match."

Posted on 05/09/01 at 12:38 PM

Tags: Aluminum Tubes, DOE, TRUE INTEL, WMD

Comments