Fast Facts about Iraq's
Nuclear Weapons Program

Curriculum Vitae of Khidhir Hamza, who worked as a consultant for ISIS in 1997-1999, and contributed to ISIS's understanding of how Iraq procured sensitive nuclear items for its nuclear weapons program.

 

Conference Proceedings

Transcripts from the June 14-15, 2001 ISIS Conference, "Understanding the Lessons of Nuclear Inspections and Monitoring in Iraq: A Ten-Year Review":

Other Links

UN Security Council Resolution 1284 passed 17 December 1999, establishing UNMOVIC

Satellite Images of Iraq's Nuclear Facilities

Photos of the Destruction of al-Atheer

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Special Collections: IRAQ

Return to Main Publications Index

Country Assessments: Iraq

2004

ISIS Issues Brief: Fate of High Explosives at Al Qaqaa Still Unknown: Increasing Indications That Some Looted, David Albright and Corey Hinderstein, November 4, 2004

ISIS Issue Brief: Documents Indicate A.Q. Khan Offered Nuclear Weapon Designs to Iraq in 1990: Did He Approach Other Countries? By David Albright and Corey Hinderstein, February 4, 2004

  • Click here to read the english translation of the Iraqi memo (will open in .pdf format)

2003

Iraq's Aluminum Tubes: Separating Fact From Fiction, by David Albright. [Link opens file in .pdf format.]

ISIS Issue Brief: U.S. Allies Were Not Persuaded By U.S. Assertions on Iraq WMD, June 9, 2003.

ISIS Issue Brief: New Intelligence Report Does Not Replace the Need for Independent International Inspections of Suspect Biological Weapons Trailers, May 28, 2003.

ISIS Issue Brief: Draft UN Resolution on Iraq Lacks Plan for Return of International Weapons Inspections and Long-Term Arms Monitoring, by Corey Hinderstein, May 16, 2003.

Here's the Way to Find The Weapons, by David Albright, from the Washington Post 'Outlook' section, May 11, 2003.

ISIS Issue Brief: Internationalizing the Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction, by David Albright and Corey Hinderstein, April 16, 2003.

ISIS Issue Brief: Nuclear Revelations Show Need for Resuming International Control of the Tuwaitha Site, by David Albright and Corey Hinderstein, April 11, 2003.

ISIS Issue Brief: Internationalizing the Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction, by David Albright and Corey Hinderstein, March 26, 2003.

ISIS Issue Brief: The CIA's Aluminum Tubes' Assessment: Is the Nuclear Case Going Down the Tubes? By David Albright, March 10, 2003.

ISIS Issue Brief -- Why Did Iraq Increase the Diameter of Its Missiles? Is Iraq close to being able to deliver a nuclear weapon? By David Albright, February 4, 2003.

2002

ISIS Issue Brief -- Overreacting to Accusations of Spying on Iraq: Making Appropriate Arrangements for Information Sharing, November 25, 2002

ISIS Issue Brief -- Now for the Hard Part: Implementing Strengthened Inspections in Iraq, By David Albright and Corey Hinderstein, November 14, 2002

Five Leading Nuclear Experts Support the "Iraqi Scientists Liberation Act of 2002, October 29, 2002

ISIS Report: Iraq's Programs to Make Highly Enriched Uranium and Plutonium for Nuclear Weapons Prior to the Gulf War, By David Albright, October 2002.

Background on the Iraqi Al Furat Facility Shown in White House Photos Released October 7, 2002, October 8, 2002

  • Background on Al Furat as Envisioned by Iraq in the 1980s

Comparisons of Iraq's Nuclear Bomb Potential under different scenarios for traditional, and intrusive inspections, October 7, 2002.

  • Overview: Intrusive Inspections in the 1990s Means Iraq Lacks a Nuclear Arsenal Now
  • Graph of Iraqi Nuclear Weapon Potential With and Without Intrusive Inspections from 1991-2001
  • Table of Iraqi Nuclear Weapon Potential With and Without Intrusive Inspections at the end of 2001

These slides present an overview of the Ongoing Monitoring and Verification (OMV) program, as designed in the mid-1990s by the IAEA Action Team for implementation in Iraq. They illustrate how inspectors intended to detect secret nuclear activities, and how OMV can act as a deterrent to Iraq's nuclear weapons program. Link is in Adobe Acrobat format

ISIS Issue Brief:Understanding the Recent Draft US/British Security Council Resolution on Iraq, October 2, 2002.

ISIS Report:Aluminum Tubing Is an Indicator of an Iraqi Gas Centrifuge Program: But Is the Tubing Specifically for Centrifuges? September 23, 2002

ISIS Issue Brief: Back to Basics: Achieving Effective Inspections in Iraq, by David Albright and Corey Hinderstein, September 16, 2002.

ISIS Issue Brief: Is the Activity at Al Qaim Related to Nuclear Efforts? by David Albright and Corey Hinderstein, September 10, 2002.

2001

November 6, 2001-- Press Release announcing the publication of "The Iraqi Maze: Searching for a Way Out," by David Albright and Kevin O'Neill, in the Fall-Winter 2001 issue of The Nonproliferation Review.

2000

March 22, 2000-- Iraq's Efforts to Acquire Information about Nuclear Weapons and Nuclear-Related Technologies from the United States, by David Albright and Kevin O'Neill. This report, prepared for the Department of Energy, summarizes a draft report authored by, and transcripts of interviews with, former Iraqi scientist Khidhir Hamza. The ISIS summary report was the subject of an article in the New York Times, which appeared on this date.

February 9, 2000-- Deadly Unknowns about Iraq's Biological Weapons Program, by Milton Leitenberg, Senior Fellow, Center for International and Security Studies, University of Maryland

1999

December 14, 1999-- A comparison of the UN Security Council draft comprehensive resolution of Iraq (through the December 9, 1999 draft).

December 14, 1999-- A timeline showing the steps before sanctions can be suspended under the December 9 draft, December 14, 1999 . A copy of the December 9, 1999 draft can be found here.

Decmeber 10, 1999-- Remarks by Michael Rietz, a German criminal defense attorney who discussed his clients, Dietrich Hinze and Karl Heinz Schaab, before an ISIS-sponsored luncheon.

November 24, 1999-- Reestablishing UN Security Council Weapons Inspections in Iraq: Piecing Together a Coherent Picture of Progress A copy of the ISIS Press Release issued with the brief can be found here.

May 14, 1999-- "Crying Wolf" About the Iraqi Nuclear Weapons Threat.

April 3, 1999-- Development of the Al-Tuwaitha Site: What If the Public or the IAEA had Overhead Imagery?

January 11-12, 1999-- Remarks by David Albright and Khidhir Hamza at the 7th Carnegie International Nonproliferation Conference.

1998

December 17, 1998-- Military Strikes in Iraq: Inspections, Sanctions Must Stay in Place to Prevent Nuclear Weapons Program Reconstitution.

December, 1998-- Iraq's Reconstitution of Its Nuclear Weapons Program by David Albright and Khidhir Hamza, Arms Control Today, October 1998. (note: The October, 1998 issue of ACT was released in December, 1998.)

October, 1998-- "An Insider's Story." Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. (Provides Khidhir Hamza's first-hand account of Iraq's secret nuclear weapons program.) See also David Albright's sidebar,"Reports Of His Death Were Greatly Exaggerated".

September 9, 1998-- Albright and Hamza discussed "Iraqi Nukes" on NPR's "All Things Considered." (Note: this interview is the 12th item on on the page)

August 15, 1998--"An Iraqi Defector Warns of Iraq's Nuclear Weapons Research." The New York Times tells Khidhir Hamza's story for the first time.

May/June, 1998-- "Masters of Deception." by David Albright. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May/June 1998. (link temporarily unavailable: please e-mail ISIS to request a copy of the article)

January/February, 1998-- "Iraq: Resettle the scientists". By David Albright & Kevin O'Neill. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

1997

November 3, 1997-- Let the Iraqi Nuclear Scientists Leave.ISIS Press Release.

1996 or earlier

November/December, 1995-- "Has Iraq come clean at last?" By David Albright and Robert Kelley. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

December, 1993-- "Engineer for Hire". By David Albright. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

July/August, 1992-- "Iraq's shop-till-you-drop nuclear program". By David Albright and Mark Hibbs. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

June, 1992-- "Iraq: It's all over at Al Atheer". By David Albright and Mark Hibbs. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

January/February, 1992-- "Iraq's bomb: Blueprints and artifacts". By David Albright and Mark Hibbs. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

October, 1991-- "Iraq: News the Front Page Missed". By David Albright and Mark Hibbs. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

September, 1991-- "Iraq's nuclear hide-and-seek". By David Albright and Mark Hibbs. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

March, 1991-- "Hyping the Iraqi bomb". By David Albright and Mark Hibbs. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

March, 1991-- "Iraq and the bomb: Were they even close?" By David Albright and Mark Hibbs. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.