Word: uranium
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Wissam al-Zahawie stopped in his tracks when he heard President Bush's State of the Union speech last January. Iraq, the President announced, had attempted to purchase "yellowcake" - milled uranium oxide, the building block of nuclear-reactor fuel - from an African country. And for a country that had no nuclear energy program and a track record of seeking weapons of mass destruction, such a claim could mean only one thing: that Saddam Hussein had revived his clandestine nuclear weapons program. In the buildup to the war, that sounded like a smoking gun. If only it were true...
...Zahawie proclaims innocence of Niger's status as one of the world's largest exporters of yellowcake - despite the fact that the West African nation had been Iraq's principal supplier during the 1980s. "Frankly, I didn't know that Niger produced uranium at all," he claims, emphasizing that he would have had no technical knowledge to even discuss such matters...
...Italy had handed over cables from al-Zahawie to the Niger government announcing the trip, and other documents had pointed to his presence in Niger. But the inspectors were particularly interested in a July 6, 2000, document bearing al-Zahawie's signature, concerning a proposed uranium transaction. The inspectors refused to show him the letter, he says, but al-Zahawie was sure he had never written...
...Foreign Minister Anna Lindh released suspect Per Olof Svensson and cleared him of involvement in the attack. A new suspect, Mijailo Mijailovic, was taken into custody. Mijailovic was convicted in 1997 for repeatedly stabbing his father, who survived. Nuclear Fallout IRAN U.N. nuclear experts discovered traces of weapons-grade uranium at a site west of the capital, Tehran, in what would be the second such find since the summer, diplomats said. But Western officials say the discovery does not prove Iran's nuclear intentions, as it is possible that the radioactive traces are the result of contamination...
...about the wife of Joe Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador. Columnist Robert Novak wrote in July that Wilson's wife was a CIA "operative" who suggested that he be sent to Niger to investigate intelligence that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy a large volume of Niger's yellowcake uranium to build a nuclear weapon...