Who to believe? Here is the IAEA's chronology of "Nuclear capabilities of Iraq" dated 1991-1992 which details some of the very nuclear weapons-making materials outlined by Bush that the NY Times (presumably where Alterman borrows his proof) recently cast doubt upon.
http://www.iaea.org/worldatom/Press/Booklets/Iraq/event.html Here are statements regarding Iraq's development of nuclear weapons from the former director of the IAEA, Hans Blix dating back to 1991: http://www.iaea.or.at/worldatom/Press/Statements/FormerDG/dgsp1991n05.html Statement by IAEA Director General Hans Blix on IAEA inspections in Iraq to the US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence inspections in Iraq to the US House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Washington, D.C., USA 23 October 1991 [Excerpts] "The deep secrecy in which Iraq conducted a massive nuclear weapons development and production programme the extent of which we are still trying to determine dramatically demonstrates the Agency's need for intelligence information in the future. In Resolution 687, which gave the IAEA unique rights, we were asked: To carry out immediate on site inspections to determine Iraq's nuclear capability; To develop a plan for the destruction, removal or rendering harmless of nuclear related items which Iraq was not permitted to retain; and To develop a plan for future ongoing monitoring and verification of Iraq's compliance with its obligations in the nuclear area under the Security Council's resolutions. These tasks have proven to be much larger, more complex and considerably more dramatic than we first expected, even though the IAEA has decades of on site inspections expertise, as well as state of the art equipment and laboratories in our Agency or at our command. The IAEA has conducted seven inspections in Iraq. They clearly show that Iraq blatantly violated its sworn pledges to not seek to develop or acquire nuclear weapons. This information was not disclosed by Iraq as it agreed to do under the terms of the cease fire, but was offered grudgingly when offered at all, only after inspectors had uncovered the existence of previously undeclared activities. And let me say that we are not at all confident that everything has been revealed, even now."
