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06/25/2003 Archived Entry: "Nuke component unearthed in Baghdad back yard"

DOES THIS COUNT?: U.S. officials are downplaying this discovery but I don't think I'm going out on a thin branch saying the discovery of parts of a gas centrifuge system, used to enrich uranium, in Iraq is big time. All I had were some old bricks left over in the construction of the house I live in buried in my backyard until last summer.

The parts were unearthed by Iraqi scientist Mahdi Obeidi who had hidden them under a rose bush 12 years ago under orders from Qusay Hussein and Saddam Hussein's then son-in-law, Hussein Kamel.

U.S. officials emphasized this was not evidence Iraq had a nuclear weapon -- but it was evidence the Iraqis concealed plans to reconstitute their nuclear program as soon as the world was no longer looking.

Hopefully this will clue people into the fact that finding stuff like WMDs in a big country isn't like asking some guy walking alongside the road where the house party is. Read on.

[Update - 9:52pm] MSNBC also has a story on interesting finds.