They did succeed in buying a "test" reactor from the french; they paid about triple market for it, and I'm sure everyone involved knew what it was really for.
The French apparently told Israeli intelligence about it, because it was bombed to ashes shortly after it was installed. I suspect this is why the French were willing to sell.
I don't know what happened to the nuclear material, but my guess would be that there was not enough to do anything significant.
Still, that is one genuine transfer of nuclear material to Iraq. Of course the circumstances are hardly likely to encourage paranoia, since they spent a couple of hundred million on a crater on the ground, but there you have it.
Maybe the Russians spent so much money fooling Saddamm they didn't have any need to show Iraq anything real? Anyone selling nuclear secrets to Iraq has to know that the consequences are going to be horrible. Perhaps that's enough to restrain even the Russians.
D
Thanks.