Niger-Iraq Yellowcake: The IAEA Investigations; The Skeptics Surface

The International Atomic Energy Agency has confirmed it is actively investigating allegations that Iraq, in recent years, attempted to import uranium from Niger. My second report was filed on on 3/4/03:

An IAEA spokesman describes the investigation as ongoing and confirms the probe of Iraq's efforts to obtain uranium in Africa does focus on Niger.

But the spokesman will not provide any details and will not tell this reporter, for example, whether the government of Niger is cooperating or whether the UN nuclear agency has sent any investigators to the African country.

However Iraq's Foreign Ministry has said IAEA officials in Baghdad have questioned Iraqi officials about the Niger connection. On February 12th, IAEA investigators interviewed a retired Iraqi ambassador. The official was not identified but the Iraqi Foreign Ministry says the interview concerned allegations that Iraq imported uranium from Niger after 1998. Last month I reported Niger supplied Iraq with a key ingredient for its nuclear program two decades ago and more recently agreed to resume those shipments. US officials said that Niger signed an agreement in 2000 to sell Iraq 500 metric tons of a concentrated form of uranium known as yellowcake.

However, Niger's former minister of Mining and Energy [Yhaya Barre] later responded by saying the charges were "lies." The official said in an interview that it is the Niger government's practice to check any potential buyers of uranium against the so-called "red list" of the International Atomic Energy Agency -- adding if any nation is on the list, there would be no deal.

In addition, he said any such deal could not be made without the knowledge of the French-owned company Cogema, which operates uranium mining in Niger.

UN officials have confirmed Niger made two separate shipments of the concentrated uranium to Iraq -- one in 1981 and a second the following year. US officials say there is no evidence of new uranium shipments despite the more recent agreement. Niger denied the earlier shipments as well. It is the world's third largest uranium producer, after Canada and Australia.

Soon the documents on which the alleged new Niger-Iraq deal were based were revealed to be fraudulent. On 3/14/03, I filed a report noting the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, may take up the case of forged documents cited by the Bush administration as evidence of Iraq's nuclear ambitions. Note the sources in this item who now claimed the documents were always suspect. Why hadn’t they spoken up before? Or did they and were their complaints ignored by political appointees? If so, why didn’t they resort to the time honored technique of leaking their concerns to the news media?

Secretary of State Colin Powell says US officials received in good faith from foreign sources the evidence purporting to show a recent attempt by Iraq to buy uranium from the African nation of Niger.

He told Congress this past week that evidence was then passed on to the United Nations in good faith.

“It was provided in good faith to the inspectors and our agency received it in good faith.”

But a State Department official tells this reporter the UN's eventual determination that the evidence was fabricated "did not come as a surprise." The official says there was, in his words, "a fair bit of skepticism" about the authenticity of the charges when they first surfaced.

The official was authorized to speak to me by the State Department but on condition of anonymity. He did not explain why the State Department went ahead and cited the charge publicly, even naming Niger.

He now acknowledges that the StateDepartment "could have been more circumspect" in pinpointing a possible African source of uranium for Iraq.

However the official denies that political motives prompted the Bush administration to make the charge public anyway.

For his part, Secretary Powell has denied any US role in the falsification of the evidence.

A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, indicates the FBI may now look into the forgery of the documents. But the spokesman suggests there will not be a formal investigation but rather just laboratory analysis of the phony evidence. He tells me the falsification -- especially sinc it was apparently carried out abroad -- was probably not a violation of any criminal statutes in this country.

Intelligence sources say the fake evidence purported to show the existence of a secret agreement three years ago under which Niger would sell Iraq 500 tons of yellowcake, a colorful form of concentrated uranium ore.

President Bush, in his State of the Union address, noted what he termed Saddam Hussein's efforts to obtain significant quantities of uranium in Africa, an apparent reference to the charge. Niger has strongly denied any illicit uranium deals with Iraq. US intelligence officials have said there was never any proof of recent uranium shipments to Baghdad despite sales two decades ago.