A New York Times article on September 8, 2002, “reported that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq ‘has stepped up its quest for nuclear weapons,’ a claim proved by its efforts to buy ‘specially designed aluminum tubes, which American officials believe were intended as components of centrifuges to enrich uranium.’ One official was quoted anonymously as saying that ‘the first sign of a *smoking gun*…may be a mushroom cloud.’ ”
– Thomas Powers, The Military Error, Page 23