There is a lot of ruckus these days about Iraq and Niger and uranium. What is not mentioned often, if at all, is that such a deal would have been quite improbable to begin with since Iraq would really not have needed to import uranium. Iraq already had some 550 metric tons of it in the country. This was more than enough for several nuclear devices, if Iraq wanted to produce them or had the means to do it.
Here is how this is referenced, ready for use in an argument (in the extended entry):
You may have seen the following quote:
"Even before the forged documents surfaced, U.S. analysts cast doubt on the Niger story, the Senate report said. State Department (website) analysts thought the uranium story was farfetched because such a deal would be detected easily and Iraq already had some 500 tons of lightly processed uranium "yellowcake." "
This comes from the Associated Press and could be seen, for example, at the WJLA website.
The claim above about Iraq already having uranium comes from the following in the Senate Intelligence Report:
- p.52:
"(U) Regarding uranium from Africa, the language of the NIE said: Iraq has about 550 metric tons of yellowcake and low-enriched uranium at Tuwaitha, which is inspected annually by the IAEA."
- pp.54-55:
"For us it's more the concern that they have uranium in-country now. It's under inspection. It's under control of the IAEA - the International Atomic Energy Agency - but they only inspect it once a year."
- p.56:
"Referring to the sentence on uranium from Africa the CIA said, "remove the sentence because the amount is in dispute and it is debatable whether it can be acquired from the source. We told Congress that the Brits have exaggerated this issue. Finally, the Iraqis already have 550 metric tons of uranium oxide in their inventory." "
And here is why 550 tons would be plenty. Again from the Senate Intelligence Report:
- p.55:
"In the section on Iraq's nuclear program NESA wrote, "Iraq may be trying to acquire 500 tons of uranium - enough for 50 nuclear devices after processing - from Niger." "
This is my first diary, so please excuse my wobbly steps...