Iraq and weapons of mass destruction Miller helped persuade the American public that Iraq had WMD: in September 2002 she wrote about an intercepted shipment of aluminum tubes which the NYT said were to be used to develop nuclear material. It is now generally understood that they were not intended (or well suited) for that purpose but rather for artillery rockets. The story was followed up with television appearances by Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice all pointing to the story as part of the basis for taking military action against Iraq. Miller's sources were introduced to her by Ahmed Chalabi, an Iraqi exile favorable
Known and Unknown: A Memoir in the Oval Office. He writes, "I had not imagined I might choke up... at that moment George W Bush wasn't just the president. He was a compassionate human being who had a sense of what Joyce and I were going through." Rumsfeld states that Bush rose from the presidential desk to put his arm around him in understanding. Rumsfeld recounts the president inviting him into the Oval Office just fifteen days after the 9/11 attacks and the president then ordering a review of war plans for Iraq. He writes that Bush called for "creative" ideas, but "[t]wo weeks after