Rice: Iraqi Nuclear Plans Unclear (washingtonpost.com): "In 2002, Rice had said that the tubes were 'only really suited for nuclear weapons programs,' adding that 'we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.'
But, as reported by The Washington Post more than a year ago, the internal debate among intelligence analysts was intense, with the experts at the Department of Energy who specialize in uranium enrichment adamant that the tubes were not suitable for a nuclear program.
... In July, a bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence Committee that reviewed all of the intelligence on the tubes said that information available to intelligence analysts "indicated that these tubes were intended to be used for an Iraqi conventional rocket program and not a nuclear program." The report also said that assertions that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program "was not supported by the intelligence." "
- posted by geoff @ #