Former weapons inspector says Iraq didn't buy tubes for nuclear weapons
Vienna, Austria-AP -- A second pre-war claim in President Bush's State of the Union address is coming under new scrutiny. Two weapons experts say a key Iraqi scientist has told the C-I-A that high-strength aluminum tubes bought by Baghdad were not intended for nuclear weapons production, as President Bush had suggested. The Iraqi government had contended the tubes were for small artillery rockets.
Mahdi Shukur Obeidi (MAH'-dee shuh-KOOR' oh-BAY'-dee) has also told the C-I-A that Iraq hadn't rebuilt its nuclear weapons program since the first Gulf War of 1991. He's the scientist who made headlines last month when he surrendered documents and weapons-making parts that he had buried in his Baghdad back yard.
The White House pointed to that as evidence of Iraq's nuclear ambitions, but didn't mention his contradiction of administration claims that the program had been revived and that the tubes were part of it.
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