(Washington Times) - Bill Gertz The CIA has uncovered components of a gas centrifuge used to enrich weapons-grade uranium, and a stack of nuclear arms documents in the back yard of an Iraqi scientist, an indication Baghdad was hiding its arms program for future use, a U.S. intelligence official said Wednesday. "These documents and components were deliberately hidden at the direction of Iraq's senior leadership with the aim of preserving the regime's capacity to resume construction of a centrifuge that at some point could be used to enrich uranium for a nuclear device," the intelligence official said. Dr. Mahdi Shukur Obeidi "told us [the documents] represent a complete set of what would be needed to rebuild a uranium-enrichment program," the official said. The scientist also disclosed that the concealment of the components and documents were "part of a secret high-level plan to reconstitute the nuclear weapons program once sanctions ended," the official said.
2003-06-26 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive