http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3556714.stm Iraq 'ended nuclear aims in 1991' By Gordon Corera BBC Security correspondent No banned weapons have been found despite intensive searches The head of Iraq's nuclear programme under Saddam Hussein has said Iraq destroyed its nuclear weapons programme in 1991 and never restarted it. Jafar Dhia Jafar told the BBC sanctions and inspections worked in stopping the reconstitution of the programme. One of the most powerful arguments in the case for war on Iraq was the US and UK's claim Saddam Hussein was trying to restart his nuclear programme. Mr Jafar ran Iraq's nuclear programme for nearly 25 years. Equipment destroyed The man the former Iraqi leader originally asked to build the country's nuclear bomb claimed all nuclear development stopped in July 1991, under the orders of Saddam Hussein. "We had orders to hand over the equipment to the Republican guards," Mr Jafar said in his first broadcast interview - to be aired on BBC's Newsnight programme on Wednesday evening. "And they had orders to destroy the equipment that we handed over to them." He said that everything was destroyed, such that the programme could not be restarted at the time - and that it never restarted. Not coming clean However, inspectors claim that it was the evasive behaviour of Mr Jafar himself and his failure come clean about the programme that led them to believe that Iraq had to be hiding something. Mr Jafar also says the British government's assertion that Iraq tried to purchase Uranium from Niger is categorically false. He says he was approached by US intelligence to defect, but remained in Iraq until he fled just two days before Baghdad fell to coalition forces last year.
However, inspectors claim that it was the evasive behaviour of Mr Jafar himself and his failure come clean about the programme that led them to believe that Iraq had to be hiding something. There's no answer to this.
True, and I posted this specifically to talk about the Niger claim. This man who was the head of Nuclear program says that Iraq did not try and buy Uranium from Niger. I don't doubt that Jafar was probably elusive when questioned by inspectors.
