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Bush Lied about the Aluminum Tubes in Iraq
Bush, Cheney, Rice and Powell said that aluminum tubes Iraq attempted to purchase were for use in a uranium centrifuge to create nuclear weapons. These were the only physical evidence he had against Iraq. But it turns out this evidence had been rejected by the Department of Energy and other intelligence agencies long before Bush used them in his speeches. [CNN].
- 9/8/02 - Bush team leaks classified "intelligence" to Judith Miller and Michael Gordon at the NY Times about Iraq trying to buy aluminum tubes to enrich uranium to build nuclear bombs. Article published here.
- 9/9/02 - Cheney says on Meet the Press "Specifically aluminum tubes. There’s a story in The New York Times this morning-this is-I don’t-and I want to attribute The Times. I don’t want to talk about, obviously, specific intelligence sources, but it’s now public that, in fact, he has been seeking to acquire, and we have been able to intercept and prevent him from acquiring through this particular channel, the kinds of tubes that are necessary to build a centrifuge. And the centrifuge is required to take low-grade uranium and enhance it into highly enriched uranium, which is what you have to have in order to build a bomb." [MTP]
- 9/12/02 - Bush, in a speech to the UN General Assembly, says "Iraq has made several attempts to buy high-strength aluminum tubes used to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon." [WhiteHouse]
- 9/23/02 - The Institute for Science and International Security releases a report calling the aluminum tube intelligence ambiguous, citing dissenting views from senior scientists in the Department of Energy. [ISIS]
- 9/24/02 - A British government white paper says of the aluminum tubing: "there is no definitive intelligence that it is destined for a nuclear programme." [BG]
- 10/02 - National Intelligence Estimate: INR says the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has "concluded that the tubes Iraq seeks to acquire are poorly suited for use in gas centrifuges to be used for uranium enrichment and finds unpersuasive the arguments advanced by others to make the case that they are intended for that purpose. INR considers it far more likely that the tubes are intended for another purpose, most likely the production of artillery rockets." [GlobalSecurity]
- 1/28/03 - Bush said "Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production." in his State of the Union Speech. [WhiteHouse]
Bush and his team continue to claim the tubes were really for nuclear weapons despite having no credible evidence.
Resources
- In 2002, a handful of lawmakers were privy to classified intel about Iraqi WMD. Behind closed doors, there was uncertainty. But in public, Bush officials told a different story. Senator Dick Durbin explains why he didn’t blow the whistle when it might have made a difference. One The Media, May 4, 2007
- "West Wing Pipe Dream - Beyond yellowcake: Dissecting the over-hyped threat of those aluminum tubes." by Tim Dickinson, Mother Jones, July 28, 2003
- "Misrepresenting Evidence on Iraq's Aluminum Tubes" from Scientific Integrity in Policymaking
