Former Iraqi scientist provides parts, documents from Iraq's nuclear weapons program

A former Iraqi nuclear scientist has provided US authorities parts and documents from Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons program from over 12 years ago, an American intelligence official said Wednesday.  

The scientist, Mahdi Shukur Obeidi, said he had kept the parts buried in his garden at his Baghdad home on the orders of Saddam's government, according to the intelligence official, AP reported.  

Once sanctions against Iraq ended, the material was to be dug up and used to reconstitute a program to enrich uranium to make a nuclear weapon, Obeidi told the U.S. officials.  

Obeidi's statements are regarded by US officials as evidence that Iraq had an effort to hide parts of its original programs from U.N. inspectors.  

Before the 1991 Gulf War, Obeidi led Iraq's program to make centrifuges that would enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, the official said. Most or all of that program was dismantled after U.N. inspections in the early 1990s. (Albawaba.com) 

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