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New 'yellowcake' claims
09/04/2006 20:57 - (SA)
London - Two employees of the Niger embassy in Rome allegedly forged documents that were later used to justify the US-led invasion of Iraq, a British newspaper claimed on Sunday.
Citing unnamed sources at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), the Sunday Times said the embassy officials faked papers to show that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium ore from the west African nation.
The documents, which emerged in 2002, were denounced as forgeries by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
But in the run-up to military action in March 2003, both the White House and Britain used claims that Saddam had bought or was seeking to buy significant amounts of uranium for weapons from a west African nation. Consul
According to the newspaper, the papers were forged for money by the Niger consul and his assistant at the embassy in Rome as western intelligence agencies sought evidence about reports that Iraq was attempting to buy uranium ore.
They were said to have copied a real contract to make it look as if Niger would supply Iraq with 500 tonnes of ore - or "yellowcake" - it added.
The documents passed into the hands of the French secret service by way of a former Italian agent.
The ex-agent passed the documents on to an Italian journalist in late 2002. The journalist then took them to the US embassy, whose officials in turn informed Washington, the newspaper said.
Former US ambassador Joseph Wilson travelled to Niger and found the claims about Iraq obtaining uranium to be without substance. Wife identified as CIA operative He publicly attacked the White House's assertions on the matter in a critical newspaper commentary in mid-2003.
But that led to government officials briefing journalists that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operative. Naming an undercover agent is illegal in the United States.
Last week, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a former aide to US vice-president Dick Cheney, told an inquiry into the leak that it was Cheney who ordered the briefings and that President George W Bush had authorised them.
- AFP
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