Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger
| Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger | |
|---|---|
| FALSE | |
| "Documents show that Saddam Hussein's Iraq tried to buy hundreds of tons of uranium "yellowcake" from Niger to build nuclear weapons." | |
| Domain | War, Conflict & Geopolitics |
| Tactic | Fabrication Imposture |
| Era | Current |
| First seen | 2001 |
| Origin | Forged documents passed to Italian intelligence in 2001 and shared with US and British agencies; cited in President George W. Bush's State of the Union address on January 28, 2003 |
| Last reviewed | 2026-10-29 |
| Further reading: books on War, Conflict & Geopolitics | |
The Niger uranium documents purported to show that Iraq had agreed to buy uranium ore from Niger. The claim helped make the case for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In March 2003, the International Atomic Energy Agency told the UN Security Council the documents were forgeries.
The claim
In his 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush said the British government had learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. The remark became known as the "sixteen words."
What the evidence shows
- Crude forgeries. The IAEA found obvious errors, including a letter signed by a Niger foreign minister who had left office years earlier, and mismatched letterheads.
- Early doubts. Former ambassador Joseph Wilson, sent to Niger by the CIA in 2002, reported that such a sale was highly unlikely. The CIA had warned the White House against using the claim in an October 2002 speech.
- Retraction. In July 2003 the White House acknowledged the sixteen words should not have been in the speech.
- Inquiries. The 2004 Senate intelligence committee report criticized how the claim was handled. No evidence of a completed purchase was found.
Why it matters
A weak, unverified claim can travel to the highest level of government when it supports a decision already favored.
See also
Sources
- International Atomic Energy Agency, statement of Director General Mohamed ElBaradei to the UN Security Council, March 7, 2003.
- US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq, July 2004.
- Wikipedia, "Niger uranium forgeries."