(Financial Times-UK) According to senior European intelligence officials, illicit sales of uranium from Niger were being negotiated with five states including Iraq at least three years before the U.S.-led invasion. The claim that the illicit export of uranium was under discussion was widely dismissed when letters referring to the sales - apparently sent by a Niger official to a senior official in Saddam Hussein's regime - were proved by the International Atomic Energy Agency to be forgeries. But European intelligence officials have for the first time confirmed that information provided by human intelligence sources produced sufficient evidence for them to believe that Niger was the center of a clandestine international trade in uranium. "There were several sources, and they were reliable sources," said a European intelligence official.
2004-06-28 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive