The AP is breaking a story about an Iraqi nuclear weapons program:

WASHINGTON – A former Iraqi nuclear scientist has provided American authorities parts and documents from Saddam Hussein’s nuclear weapons program that he claims to have buried more than 12 years ago, the White House said Thursday.

The scientist, Mahdi Shukur Obeidi, said he acted on the orders of Saddam’s government as “part of a high-level plan to reconstitute the nuclear weapons program once sanctions were ended,” said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.

Fleischer, confirming reports by U.S. intelligence officials, told American officials that Obeidi claimed the parts and documents buried in his garden “represented a complete set of what would be needed to rebuild a centrifuge uranium enrichment program.”

Read the full article here.

(Cross-posted to Command Post.)

UPDATE: Meanwhile, CNN reports on its exclusive peek at the parts and plans.

Thursday, June 26th, 2003, 10:39 am   |   War Bites  |  RSS feed Comments and pings are currently closed.