Iraqi scientist: Saddam was close to nukes in '91

http://www.sacbee.com/24hour/world/story/1197003p-8172395c.html

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Iraq was three years away from becoming a nuclear power before the 1991 Gulf War, the No. 2 Iraqi scientist on the program said Tuesday.

Noman Saad Eddin al-Noaimi, a former director-general of Iraq's nuclear program, told The Associated Press that Iraq produced less than a kilogram - 2.2 pounds - of highly enriched uranium before the war and U.N. inspections halted the program.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, considers 55 pounds the standard minimum for a rudimentary bomb.

"Producing the appropriate amount would have required at least two more years, under normal circumstances," al-Noaimi said on the sidelines of a meeting in Beirut about the repercussions of the Iraq invasion. "Putting that substance into a weapon could have taken an additional year."

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(So, our intelligence was a little slow)

So they weren't 3 years away. They hoped they were three years away. Obviously, the sanctions and inspections worked beautifully. Thank you, Bill Clinton.

Therefore, I again say, so?