“The NIE [National Intelligence Estimate, released on October 1, 2002] stated with ‘high confidence’ that Iraq had reconstituted its nuclear weapons program since the U.N. weapons inspectors had left Iraq in 1998, adding that Iraq ‘probably will have a nuclear weapon during this decade.’ According to former NSA [National Security Agency] and CIA analysts, NSA had collected virtually nothing that came close to confirming this assertion prior to the NIE being issued. The only intercepts that even remotely suggested that the Iraqis were trying to rebuild their capacity to develop and build nuclear weapons were a small number of very low-level e-mails and telexes from 2000 and 2001, involving attempts by Iraqi front companies to buy high-speed balancing machines needed for uranium enrichment.”
– Matthew M. Aid, The Secret Sentry, Page 237