Saddam Surat # 3 - Saddam Bought 200 Tons of Uranium from Niger in 1980.

The Pasadena Pundit ^ | December 4, 2005 | Wayne Lusvardi

[WayneLusvardi]

Saddam Surat # 3 - Saddam Bought 200 Tons of Uranium from Niger in 1980. (Excerpt from Con Coughlin - Saddam: His Rise and Fall, 2005).

"Once it became clear that Iran was not going to be defeated easily (in 1980), Saddam was keener than ever to employ his various nonconventional weapons. As usual, it was the nuclear research project that particularly interested him. Before the war started, Saddam had been promised that the reactor would be ready produce weapons-grade material by July 1981. Although the French, by responding to international pressure, were still dragging their feet on supplying Saddam with enriched uranium necessary to power the Tammuz reactor cores, by July 1980 the first shipments had arrived at Al Tuwaitha, on the outskirts of Baghdad, where the nuclear research establlishment was being built. Iraq was also engaged in a worldwide search for uranium. A hundred and twenty tons were acquired from Portugal in 1980, and a further two hundred tons from Niger. Saddam clearly hoped that he would have use of an atomic bomb by either late 1981 or early 1982, and had his scientists succeeded in their mission, there is little doubt that he would have used it against Iran....The next blow against Saddam's pet project came three months later on September 30 (1980), shortly after Saddam had invaded Iran and the French had delivered the first consignment of enriched uranium, failed, but on June 7, 1981, the Israelis completed what the Iranians had failed to do when the Israeli air force successfully bombed the plant (Osirak reactor), just one month before it was to become operational. The reactor was completely destroyed, although most of the enriched uranium, which had been stored in a deep underground canal, remained intact; this would enable Saddam to recommence his beloved nuclear weapons project at a later date." Excerpt from Con Coughlin, Saddam - His Rise and Fall.

[infidel29]

I seem to remember reports from an Iraqi nuclear scientist around the time the Joe Wilson story was breaking. The scientist said "why would we buy uranium from Niger when we already have uranium?"

[Sacajaweau]

Wilson confirmed this purchase in a Oct 3, 2003 interview. No problem he said: It was legal.

In regard to his Niger trip, he said it would have been illegal because of the sanctions and would have to have been a conspiracy" which is why (and he said this)....he qualified his conclusion with the word "unlikely". So what he meant was...I really don't know.