Another claim of an Iraqi attempt to buy uranium from Niger

REPORT ON THE U S . INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY’S
PREWAR INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENTS ON IRAQ


(U) On November 22,2002, during a meeting with State Department officials, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director for Nonproliferation said that France had information on an Iraqi attempt to buy uranium from Niger. He said that France had determined that no uranium had been shipped, but France believed the reporting was true that Iraq had made a procurement attempt for uranium from Niger.

(...)On November 25,2002, The Naval ... -issued a very brief report (Alleged Storage of Uranium Destined for Iraq - that a large quantity of uranium from Niger was being stored in a warehouse in Cotonou, Benin. The uranium was reportedly sold to Iraq by Niger’s President. The report provided the name and telephone numbers for the individual, a West African businessman, who was responsible for coordinating the alleged uranium transaction and indicated that he was willing to provide information about the transaction. CIA’S DO told Committee staff that the businessman has never been contacted and the DO has not made an effort to determine whether this individual had any useful information. The DO told Committee staff that they saw no reason to contact him and noted that ‘‘no one even thought to do that.” The Defense Humint Service (DHS) and the Navy also told Committee staff that they
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did not try to contact the businessman. The Navy told the Committee that because they were not further tasked regarding their report, they did not pursue the matter further. The DHS told Committee staff that because the DHS examined the warehouse on December 17,2002 and saw only what appeared to be bales of cotton in the warehouse, they did not see a reason to contact the businessman. The report on the DHS’s findings was not published until February 10,2003.