C01230682 i worsened - Central Intelligence Agency Withheld under statutory authority of the Central Intelligence Agency Act of1949 50 U S C section 403g Senior Executive Memorandum 1 2002 memorandum should not be reproduced Memorandum In response to a query about the status nuclear program Procurement activities detected in the past year are consistent with Iraq attempting to jump- start a clandestine uranium enrichment program 1 to produce the ssile material needed to make a nuclear weapon potentially by late th 47 1-- is a signi cant number of nuclear program scientists program documents 1-11 Highlight ii manufacturing infrastructure to support a nuclear weapons program I - section 1 4- c Iprocurement network that could be used to support a centrifuge program as in the recent aluminum tube procurement effort which CIA assesses to be an integral part of Iraq's centrifuge program The most signi cant collection gap on restarting a centrifuge program is feed material production Iraq has no known production capability As part of reconstituting its gas centrifuge program Baghdad would need to acquire a uranium conversion capability to transform uranium ore into UFG gas The worstcase scenario is illicit acquisition of suf cient ssile material uranium or plutonium to allow Baghdad to produce a crude nuclear weapon within a year CIA has not detected a dedicated Iraqi effort to obtain ssile material from anorher government or on the clear intent and activities today _ L-Jlopments escaped detection Saddam never abandon his nuclear weapons program but reporting on Iraqi efforts to revive it is limited Iraq securities to employ effective denial and deception measures and there are no indicators that Baghdad has embarked on an extensive nuclear weapons effort as it did before the Gun DECLASSIFIED UNDER AUTHORITY OF THE INTERAGENCY SECURITY CLASSIFICATION APPEALS PANEL no 13526 SECTION ISCAP APPEAL NO 2008 013 document no 2 DECLASSIFICATION DATE December 3 2015 For further information contactl I roP-seeae r 49P-BEGR-EF ithhold under nadir-n authority ofthe ntral Intelligence Agency ct of 1049 511 Tilt-D 4031