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To: piasa
Q : Who said the Niger/Iraq documents were forged?

A.: "Mr. ElBaradei [The Egyptian head of the UN nuclear agency] says his agency reviewed correspondence from the government of Niger to compare the format, contents and signatures with those of the alleged uranium procurement-related documentation. He says after thorough analysis, the IAEA now believes documents which formed the basis for the claims of recent uranium transactions between Iraq and Niger, are in fact not authentic and the allegations are unfounded. ElBaradei also told the Council the IAEA discussed the charges with Iraq and Niger, both of which denied any such activity took place. He said Baghdad suggested the visit by an unidentified Iraqi official to a number of African countries, including Niger, in February 1999, might have given rise to the allegations. " - Source : VOA News Report, VOA Correspondent ALEX BELIDA, 03/07/03, via http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iraq/2003/iraq-030307-2d189eab.htm.

8 posted on 07/13/2003 3:59:05 AM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
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To: piasa
Q : Are the forged documents the only evidence we have that Iraq sought to buy uranium in Africa?

A : No.

"Michael Anton, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said that when Bush made the speech, there was other intelligence indicating Iraq had tried to acquire uranium from several countries in Africa. This other information, however, was not detailed or specific enough to prove such a contention, he said. Anton acknowledged such on Tuesday, but also said the documents were not the sole basis for the Iraq-Africa statement in Bush's speech. "Because of this lack of specificity, this reporting alone did not rise to the level of inclusion in a presidential speech," Anton said. "That said, the issue of Iraq's attempts to acquire uranium from abroad was not an element underpinning the judgment reached by most intelligence agencies that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program." - "Bush Defends Use of Iraq Intelligence," By TOM RAUM, ASSOCIATED PRESS, July 09, 2003 via las Vegas Sun


Late 1970s to 1982 : (IRAQ OBTAINED UO2 FROM NIGER'S ONAREM (Office National des Resources Minieres))
* Niger ships yellowcake to Iraq in two batches. Batch one, which consists of 432 drums and 137,435kg of yellowcake, is received. —Fourth Consolidated Report of the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency under paragraph 16 of Security Council resolution 1051 (1996), S/1997/779, 8 October 1997, pp. 25-26, ; Fact Sheet: Iraq's Nuclear Weapon Programme, IAEA Action Team, .

1982 : (IRAQI AGENTS PAID $60 MILLION TO ITALIAN SMUGGLERS TO TRY TO OBTAIN SMUGGLE ENRICHED URANIUM, GETS SNOOKERED; THEN SUCCEED IN OBTAINING YELLOWCAKE TO ENRICH ON ITS OWN FROM CHINA, BRAZIL AND NIGER) In 1982 Iraqi agents paid $60 million to a team of Italian-based smugglers who claimed to have access to stores of plutonium and highly enriched uranium. According to U.S. officials, the smugglers' offer was a fraud, and the Iraqis walked away from it empty- handed. Stung by those setbacks, Baghdad turned to a third means of joining the nuclear club: the enrichment of uranium to weapons-grade level in gas centrifuges. The centrifuges take uranium-bearing ore or a mixture called yellowcake and separate out the 3% of uranium 235, which is fissionable, from the 97% of uranium 238, which is not. Iraq is known to possess 250 tons of yellowcake, most of it purchased in the 1970s from Brazil, China and Niger. In recent years the country has also begun producing its own yellowcake from mines in northern Iraq. - "When Will Saddam Get the Bomb? Not nearly so soon as the Bush Administration claims, "By William R. Doerner, December 10, 1990 via TIME Capsule, The Evolution of the Iraqi Threat, Monday, May. 13, 2002 of http://www.time.com/time/classroom/article/0,12422,235482,00.html.

1982 : (IRAQ GETS YELLOWCAKE FROM NIGER & PORTUGAL) Iraq obtains 426 drums containing 139,409kg of yellowcake from Niger and 487 drums containing 148,348kg yellowcake from Portugal. —Fact Sheet: Iraq's Nuclear Weapon Programme, IAEA Action Team

And there is this unconfirmed report :
MARCH 2001 : (REPORTS THAT IRAQ HAD OBTAINED ENRICHED URANIUM FROM SOUTH AFRICA) "The BBC Correspondent programme in March 2001 uncovered evidence suggesting South Africa had supplied enriched uranium to Iraq in 1988. South Africa halted its weapons programme a year later and dismantled its weapons-making and enrichment capabilities before signing the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in 1991. Iraqi defectors, including a nuclear engineer and an assistant to Saddam Hussain's son Uday, had revealed that Iraq obtained uranium for its nuclear programme from South Africa. The deal had been signed in 1986 and the uranium delivered in 1988. - "Iraq 'sought African uranium,' Britain says Iraq wanted African uranium, "BBC News World Edition, Tuesday, 24 September, 2002, 10:59 GMT 11:59 UK

And that doesn't count just where it's been seeking.

9 posted on 07/13/2003 4:27:02 AM PDT by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge.)
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