Re: Bush Rx Psychoactive Use??

From: Rick (me_at_privacy.net)
Date: 10/22/04 

Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 17:02:51 -0700

"Steve Harris sbharris@ROMAN9.netcom.com" <sbharris@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:79cf0a8.0410211529.6f380b55@posting.google.com...
> "Rick" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message news:<2tqeqiF21rekoU1@uni-berlin.de>...
> > I'm copying the following unformatted transcript for Google's
> > archive, of a speech given last Monday by Al Gore at
> > Georgetown University. >
> > Al Gore Speaks on Iraq
> > Monday, October 18 , 2004 at 12:30pm
> > Gaston Hall, Georgetown University
> > Washington, D.C.
>
> [snip]
>
> > For example, when the President and his team were asserting that Saddam Hussein had aluminum tubes that had been acquired in
order
> > to enrich Uranium for atomic bombs, numerous experts at the Department of Energy and elsewhere in the intelligence community
were
> > certain that the information being presented by the President was completely wrong. The true experts on Uranium enrichment are
at
> > Oak Ridge, in my home state of Tennessee. And they told me early on that in their opinion there was virtually zero possibility
> > whatsoever that the tubes in question were for the purpose of enrichment - and yet they received a directive forbidding them
from
> > making any public statement that disagreed with the President's assertions.
>
>
> COMMENT:
>
> Hope the "experts" told Gore that "uranium" is not capitalized, any
> more than aluminum is. A mistake he makes twice.
>
> BTW, what the hell were these fancy finely machined aluminum tubes
> used for, anyway?? They impressed me mightily at the time, the best
> prop that Powell had. So if not for centrifuges, then what? Anybody?
> I notice Gore doesn't say, either.

The answer is in Hans Blix's report, and the IAEA report:

"From our analysis to date, it appears that the aluminum tubes
would be consistent with the purpose stated by Iraq [reverse
engineering of conventional rockets], and unless modified,
would not be suitable for manufactured centrifuges."
-- Hans Blix

"The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) has now
conducted a total of 218 inspections at 141 sites, including 21
that had not been inspected before. In addition, the Agency
experts have taken part in many joint UNMOVIC-IAEA
inspections.

"Technical support for nuclear inspections has continued to
expand. The three operational air samplers have collected, from
key locations in Iraq, weekly air particulate samples that are
being sent to laboratories for analysis. Additional results of water,
sediment, vegetation and material sample analyses have been
received from the relevant laboratories.

"Our vehicle-borne radiation survey team has covered some
2,000 kilometers over the past three weeks. Survey access has
been gained to over 75 facilities, including military garrisons and
camps, weapons factories, truck parks, manufacturing facilities
and residential areas."

Perhaps the most important sections of ElBaradei's report were
those that responded to claims by the United States and Britain,
trumpeted in the press, that the Iraqis had been engaged in illegal
efforts to continue their nuclear weapons program.

The United States and Britain had alleged, with great fanfare in
late 2002, that Iraq had attempted to import aluminum tubes for
the purpose of manufacturing centrifuges required for the secret
production of nuclear weapons. This issue was declared by the
British and American governments to be a matter of paramount
concern in December. Iraq's denials of these allegations were
brushed aside by the American and British governments.

ElBaradei reported that the issue of the aluminum tubes had been
carefully investigated by the IAEA. Its conclusion: "Extensive field
investigation and document analysis have failed to uncover any
evidence that Iraq intended to use these 81mm tubes for any
project other than the reverse engineering of rockets [as Iraq had
explained previously].

"Based on available evidence, the IAEA team has concluded that
Iraq's efforts to import these aluminum tubes were not likely to
have been related to the manufacture of centrifuges and, moreover,
that it was highly unlikely that Iraq could have achieved the
considerable redesign needed to use them in a revived centrifuge
program."
-- IAEA Report

Rick

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