Posted on 03/09/2007 12:29:49 PM PST by Enchante
Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo say they have dismantled an international network set up to illegally use uranium mined there.
Scientific Research Minister Sylvanus Mushi said DR Congo's top nuclear official and a colleague were being questioned in connection with the case.
The official, Fortunat Lumu, and the colleague were arrested on Tuesday.
The move comes amid reports that a large quantity of uranium has gone missing in recent years in DR Congo.
State prosecutor Tshimanga Mukeba earlier told the BBC that an "important quantity" of uranium was taken from the atomic energy centre in the capital, Kinshasa, without revealing any figures.
DR Congo's daily newspaper Le Phare on Wednesday reported that more than 100 bars of uranium, as well as an unknown quantity of uranium contained in helmet-shaped cases, had disappeared from the centre as part of a vast trafficking of the material going back years.
But the BBC's Kinshasa correspondent, Arnaud Zajtman, says that as of yet, no evidence has been made public to support the allegations made by the newspaper.
'Criminal network'
Mr Mushi said that "a vast network aimed at the fraudulent exploitation of DR Congo's uranium has been dismantled".
"It was a criminal network," he said, without giving any more details.
Referring to earlier reports that the two officials had been arrested on suspicion of uranium smuggling, Mr Mushi said that the prospection and exploitation of DR Congo's uranium had not yet started.
The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has expressed concerns over the reports from DR Congo, saying it was investigating the situation.
Security concerns
Uranium is the basic raw material of both civilian and military nuclear programmes.
A mine in DR Congo's southern province of Katanga supplied the uranium that was used in the atomic bombs that were dropped by the Americans on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
To thank and reward DR Congo, the Americans funded the creation of DR Congo's nuclear centre in 1958.
It was established on the university campus and only for research purpose.
But in the late 1970s, a bar of uranium disappeared from the centre, raising concern about security at the site.
Moreover, the site of the centre is facing some erosion problems. And people fear a landslide that could lead to a wider disaster, our reporter says.
In recent years, the IAEA has visited the centre and security was believed to have improved.
Uranium smuggling ring from Congo broken up!!
Joe Wilson's scam is falling apart at last. First, because he pretended that his bogus "mission to Niger" could say anything about uranium in all of "Africa" (which was the reference in President Bush's infamous "16 words"), and also because this episode in the DR of Congo indicates how worthless the kinds of official re-assurances are that Joe Wilson received..... oh, there couldn't be any smuggling, and there couldn't be an use of "closed" mines..... and there couldn't be any high officials involved in such smuggling etc. etc.
Morons of the left will try to say this is irrelevant because it is Congo and not Niger, or because the articles do not mention Iraq (YET), but merely the evidence that uranium smuggling could be occurring without the knowledge of the public or the MSM is enough to show how bogus every aspect of Traitor Joe's disinformation campaign has been.
My comments above were also in reference to these articles and the info about the arrest of the HEAD of Congo's atomic energy commission, the use of a "closed" mine etc.:
The 16 words that liberals called a LIE, and have based their entire antiwar policy on:
“The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa .” Pres George Bush, State of Union Address
Jan 28, 2003
From The American Thinker, 2005:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2005/10/covering_up_iraqs_quest_for_ur.html
The Congo Connection
The British intelligence report that GW cited in his State of the Union address didn't even concern Niger, but rather focused on the Congo. According to the U.K. Telegraph, the Congo was a far more promising source of uranium since the country had been in throes of a civil war, and since it also had a reasonable level of proven uranium reserves. The country's history of uranium production goes back to 1939, when a Congo mine supplied the material for the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. The Congo also has one of the few nuclear power reactors on the continent.
Ironically, the backing for the British intelligence report targeting the Congo is none other than our own ISG, which was largely composed of elements of the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). In his final report, Duelfer notes that the ISG had found a document that told of a post—Gulf War I contact between Baghdad and Africa concerning an offer of uranium; and the source of the uranium was not Niger, but — surprise — from the Congo.....
Just parking some more links on this thread for background info:
A nuclear black market?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/file_on_4/6401491.stm
....and some other interesting background info:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3566701.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3887373.stm
I guess Joe Wilson and his cult followers really didn't know much about uranium or Africa..... (or in Wilson's case maybe he always did understand and truly is a conscious traitor in every way):
http://www.americanthinker.com/2006/10/deconstructing_the_niger_affai.html
But what did British intelligence say about uranium and Africa?
According to the U.K. Telegraph, the British determined that the Congo was a far more promising source of illicit uranium than Niger, since the country was in a state of civil war, security was lax to non—existent, and cash—hungry warlords needed to buy weapons and gear by selling a readily available and valuable commodity. To this day, the British intelligence report has never been refuted and the agencies stand by their original assessment. This underscores the bogus nature of Wilson's trip with its singular focus on Niger.
Lots of interesting info here, too (remember our favorite traitor Mary McCarthy, who still has never been publicly called to account -- maybe she should be called before that congressional committee alongside Valerie Pflame next week):
"The Yellowcake Connection"
http://www.americanthinker.com/2006/04/the_yellowcake_connection.html
Thanks for this posting!! Maybe one of these criminals will point to Joe Wilson!!
Finding some items that could benefit from your great research, analysis, and compilation skills if you have time:
article from 2002 that mentioned Brit intel re CONGO and not Niger as a focus of Iraqi efforts:
Saddam's agents scour Africa for nuclear bomb uranium
"One country the Iraqis are known to have targeted is the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo, though no uranium has been extracted there for several years. The mine that produced the uranium used in the American bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 is in an area presently controlled by Zimbabwean troops. The dossier draws on top secret intelligence, and refers only generally to “Africa” as a potential source of uranium, possibly because of the fear that too detailed an insight might expose the sources."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/756580/posts
He was Deputy Chief of Mission in Brazzaville, Congo, 1986-88, prior to his assignment to Baghdad.
I always knew that the “Africa” claim was based on Niger; after all the White House acknowledged the day after my article appeared that the sixteen words did not rise to the level of inclusion in the State of the Union address. The White House has never said otherwise since. All the talk about Somalia, Congo or elsewhere was clearly part of the effort to protect the coverup of the lies that underpinned the justification in the first place.
Source: Ugh...a leftie website.
But they do have some interesting comments about the Congo angle that they gleaned from the Senate Report.
Ping to "Congo uranium ring smashed". Wasn't sure if you were on the ping list.
Spot on!
The BBC would still be skeptical if London had a 10-KT nuke detonated over it.
Very interesting! Thanks for the ping and excellent commentary.
When rogue elements at the CIA (Valerie Plame, et al) joined forces with typical elements at the communist State Department (Joe Wilson, et al) to hatch a scheme to smear Bush and try to fix the '04 election, they HAD to realize that a story like this one would come out and expose them.
I am still trying to figure out why the New York Times even bothered to publish an op ed by a low level hack like Wilson in the first place. I mean, the clown's wife sends him to Niger where he schmoozes with a diplomat or two and then returns home to proclaim he "found no evidence" of an attempt by Saddam to purchase yellow cake uranium? Please... Who on earth could take that idiot seriously?
But then, the NY Times has gone pretty far down the toilet so I suppose their publication of that silly op ed should be no surprise to anyone. Whatever the socialist mice at the New York Times can do to aid their rat masters they are going to do, period.
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