In his speech Bush claims that Saddam Hussein attempted to buy aluminum tubes for nuclear weapons construction. We speak with Mother Jones reporter Tim Dickinson who reveals the falsity of the statement and how the administration knew about it.

An article in Mother Jones beings like this:

“Lost in the now radioactive State of the Union scandal is the fact that the attempted procurement of African uranium wasn’t the only false claim the president uttered that night about Saddam’s nuclear aims. The 19 words that followed the now-infamous “16 enormously overblown” ones have proved to be every bit as untrue, and the intelligence underlying the claim nearly as shoddy.

The article goes on to say that Bush’s claim that Saddam “attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production” was false and provides a time-line of events revealing how this was well known by the administration and intelligence officials at the time of the speech.

• President George W. Bush, giving his State of the Union Address on January 28th, 2003
• Tim Dickinson, articles editor for Mother Jones. His piece “West Wing Pipe Dream” examines the claim that Saddam Hussein attempted to buy aluminum tubes for nuclear weapons construction.