Did Iraq try to obtain aluminum tubes to produce fissile material?
A second claim that the Bush administration has made in its attempt to prove Iraq is building nuclear capability is that Iraq tried to buy anodized aluminum tubes that could be used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons. As the President stated in his speech to the United Nations last September 12, “Iraq has made several attempts to buy high-strength aluminum tubes used to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon. Should Iraq acquire fissile material, it would be able to build a nuclear weapon within a year.” There is significant cause to doubt this claim, however. As recent pieces in the Washington Post and The New Republic noted, the IAEA found that the tubes Iraq attempted to purchase were “not directly suitable” for enriching uranium and IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei said it was “highly unlikely” the tubes could be used for that purpose. Specifically, the tubes are the wrong size for uranium enrichment and the IAEA has secured extensive documentation proving that Iraq has been
