[silverleaf]

This is not remarkable news- I believe this material was from Tuwaitha and the stockpile there dated back to the late 1970’s when Iraq bought Nigerien yellowcake to produce fuel for its Osirak facility - which Israel destroyed in 1979?

After DESERT STORM The UN had the Tuwaitha stockpile pretty much under its observation, if not outright control.

The controversy with Joe Wilson and Niger was over whether Iraq was planning an additional future yellowcake purchase -
this did not occur but plenty of good reporting indicated the prospects were at least explored by Iraq

which would have been necessary to establish a secret fuel materiel stockpile not under UN observation, possibly not even in Iraq but possibly in a country cooperating with Iraq (Libya?)

[TigersEye]

After DESERT STORM The UN had the Tuwaitha stockpile pretty much under its observation, if not outright control.

What kind of control did the UN have after UNSCOM inspectors were removed from Iraq in 1998?