[DrC]

Apart from oil-for-food, one other thing you should include is that there is some connection between uranium production and gold mines (something to the effect that uranium is or can be a by-product of gold mining?), which potentially further amplifies the connection between Wilson's business dealings and the possible French aspiration to serve as Saddam's covert uranimum supplier. Once again, sorry I don't have the link, but it's something I read somewhere on FR.

[Fedora]

I didn't include that explicitly because in the research I did I wasn't able to find a direct connection between the COGEMA uranium consortium and any gold mining companies linked to Wilson, but I did mention some of the companies I looked at in the hope someone can connect some dots I overlooked. Here are some relevant snips. From a previous post:

In 1999, French intelligence had begun investigating the security of uranium supplies in Niger, where uranium production was controlled by a consortium led by the French mining company COGEMA, a division of the French state-owned nuclear energy firm AREVA.

From the current post:

Alamoudi was a member of the Saudi-Ethiopian Alamoudi dynasty, which was heavily invested in the segments of the African economy Wilson was seeking to penetrate. The Alamoudi oil empire, centered around the Saudi-based company Delta Oil, included African ventures such as Arab-African Petroleum Company (ARAPCO), created in 2002 to buy oil concessions in Africa and develop them with foreign partners.40 Alamoudi investments in African telecommunications included a Pan-African telecommunications project launched in 2001 by Pan African Communications Network (PACONET) with financing from a fund chaired by former South African President Nelson Mandela and cofinanced by the International Finance Corporation (IFG), the American International Group (AIG, a group including the Houston-based company El Paso Energy Corporation), and the African Development Bank (ADB).41 Alamoudi investments in African gold included MIDROC Gold Mine Private Limited Company, a subsidiary of the Alamoudi company MIDROC (Mohammed International Development Research Organization & Companies) launched in 2003.

SNIP

Although Wilson does not identify his clients who had an interest in Niger gold investments, it may be observed that during the time frame referenced by his comments, the first gold mine in Niger, known as the Samira Hill Gold Project, was being developed by a pair of Canadian-based companies, Etruscan Resources and Semafo.

Something I had in a previous draft of the current post which I think I may have cut out in the editing process is that COGEMA and AREVA's management overlapped with the management of TotalFinaElf. If there's a connection I'd expect it'd be there.