http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2003_11_16.php Remember Khidhir Hamza? He was a rather famous figure in Washington a year ago. He was “Saddam’s Bombmaker” according to a
book he co-wrote a few years back.
Hamza was the originator -- or at least the prime proponent -- of the theory that Saddam was enriching uranium through a highly unorthodox but devilishly concealable method --- with very small uranium enrichment facilities scattered and hidden throughout the country.
Here’s a graf from an article by Eli Lake last year in The New Republic …
Shortly after Wolfowitz took his post in February 2001, for example, Chalabi and Brooke brought 1994 defector Khidir Hamza, one of Saddam's most senior nuclear scientists, to meet the new deputy defense secretary. In the meeting, Hamza described how Saddam was trying to refine uranium for his nuclear program using a centrifuge technique in small labs scattered throughout the country. Initially, there had been skepticism within the intelligence community--and specifically the CIA--that Saddam could be refining uranium in this way. But Hamza was insistent, claiming that Baghdad was purchasing from abroad a specific kind of aluminum tube needed for the process. And ultimately, Hamza's intelligence seems to have been borne out. Just last week, The New York Times published an article reporting that "$(i$)n the last 14 months, Iraq has sought to buy thousands of specially designed aluminum tubes, which American officials believe were intended as components of centrifuges to enrich uranium."
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http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/truth/view/AHMAD CHALABI, Iraqi National Congress: Saddam Hussein was a threat to the West, and he was the most dangerous threat that-- that could have been envisaged in this time, after-- especially after September 11th.
NARRATOR: According to top Pentagon adviser Richard Perle, Chalabi was without question the single most important source of intelligence the U.S. had on Saddam Hussein's Iraq.
RICHARD PERLE, Defense Policy Board: He's a very capable guy. He's quite brilliant -- Ph.D. in mathematics, with a background at the University of Chicago and MIT, committed to secular democracy -- and is the kind of modern liberal leader that we would hope to see not only in Iraq but throughout the Arab world.
MARTIN SMITH: People say that there are two men who are responsible for the fall of Saddam Hussein. One is George Bush and the other is Ahmad Chalabi. You agree?
AHMAD CHALABI: If somebody else said it, I'm not going to disagree with them. This is-- this is-
MARTIN SMITH: Well, you nagged the U.S. government for 12, 13 years to accomplish this task.
AHMAD CHALABI: Well, I did. I worked very hard because I came to the conclusion very early on that if the U.S. is not heavily involved in helping the Iraqi people get rid of Saddam, Saddam is going to stay, and his son is going to come after.
NARRATOR: When we caught up with Chalabi, he was no longer preoccupied with making the case for war. A steady stream of visitors was coming to his headquarters. Chalabi was busy navigating post-war politics.
MARTIN SMITH: Many people that supported the war no longer do.
AHMAD CHALABI: Yes.
MARTIN SMITH: They feel that they were suckered.
AHMAD CHALABI: Yes, probably.
MARTIN SMITH: They say so.
AHMAD CHALABI: OK. I mean, I don't-- you know, I'm not a--
MARTIN SMITH: Well, I mean, the-- you know, half the people now feel that the war wasn't justified on the grounds that it was argued for.
AHMAD CHALABI: OK.
MARTIN SMITH: Do you feel any discomfort with that?
AHMAD CHALABI: No. We are in Baghdad now.
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