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No Evidence Iraq Sought Foreign Uranium, ISG Says By Mike Nartker WASHINGTON — The Iraq Survey Group, the coalition unit that searched for evidence of prewar Iraq’s alleged WMD efforts, has found no evidence that Baghdad sought to acquire uranium from abroad following the 1991 Gulf War, according to a report released last week by U.S. chief weapons inspector Charles Duelfer (see GSN, Aug. 2). Prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom, U.S. officials cited Iraq’s alleged attempts to obtain uranium as evidence of efforts by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to relaunch his nuclear program. Citing information received from sources such as the former head of Hussein’s nuclear weapons program, though, Duelfer dismissed allegations that Iraq sought uranium from Niger and the Democratic Republic of the Congo — two countries cited as possible sources by U.S. intelligence. “ISG has not found evidence to show that Iraq sought uranium from abroad after 1991,” his report states. In an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, U.S. intelligence listed the two nations and Somalia as countries from which Iraq may have sought to obtain uranium. The U.S. report was preceded by a British government dossier released in September 2002 indicating that Iraq had sought uranium from Africa. U.S. President George W. Bush included the Iraq-Africa claim in his 2003 State of the Union address. “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa,” Bush said. The claim began to fall apart in March 2003, when the International Atomic Energy Agency determined that documents provided by the United States, purporting to show an Iraq-Niger uranium deal, were forgeries. The following July, the White House acknowledged that the claim should not have been included in Bush’s address. An inquiry by the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in the aftermath of the war found that U.S. intelligence had “overstated” in the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate what was known about Iraq’s possible uranium procurement efforts. The committee, however, also said that U.S. intelligence had been “reasonable” to assess, prior to receiving the fraudulent documents in October 2002, that Iraq may have sought to obtain uranium from Africa. A British inquiry citing separate intelligence determined that the Iraq-Africa uranium claim was “well-founded.” In his report last week, Duelfer described the claims made by the former head of Iraq’s pre-1991 nuclear weapons program, Jafar Jafar, regarding Iraq’s two contacts with Niger after 1998. Neither involved discussions on uranium, according to Jafar. The purpose of one visit in 1999 by Iraq’s ambassador to the Holy See, Jafar claimed, was to invite Niger’s president to visit Baghdad. Duelfer’s report does not mention the possible purpose of the Iraqi invitation. Jafar also claimed, according to Duelfer, that a second contact between Iraq and Niger occurred when a Nigerien official traveled to Baghdad in 2001 to discuss purchasing petroleum products. The trip did not involve, though, an offer by Niger to provide uranium instead of cash for the purchase, the report says. In addition, there is no sign that prewar Iraq sought to obtain uranium from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and it may actually have rejected an opportunity to do so, according to Duelfer’s report. It notes the discovery in May 2003 of a document from the Iraqi Embassy in Nairobi detailing an offer made by a Ugandan businessman to sell uranium, “reportedly” from the Congo. According to the document, embassy officials told the businessman that they did not handle such issues and explained the circumstances of international sanctions imposed against Iraq, Duelfer’s reports states. “We told him … that Iraq is not concerned about these matters right now,” says the embassy document, a copy of which is included in Duelfer’s report. Duelfer’s report does not address the prewar allegations that Iraq may have sought to obtain uranium from Somalia. The CIA refused to comment on the report, referring all questions to Duelfer. Duelfer has not responded to requests for comment.
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