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The IAEA challenges Britain to produce the goods on uranium from Africa.
This from the Independent.
UN nuclear watchdog challenges Britain to reveal Niger intelligence
By Anne Penketh, Diplomatic Editor
The United Nations nuclear watchdog yesterday challenged the Government to share intelligence which it used to accuse Saddam Hussein of trying to buy uranium from two African countries for a nuclear bomb.
Lord Butler of Brockwell said the Government's claims were "well-founded," after admitting "significant controversy" surrounded the reliability of government statements about Iraqi attempts to buy uranium ore.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) determined in March 2003 that documents which allegedly "proved" an Iraqi attempt to buy uranium from Niger were forgeries. But the British government, the first to put the claims into the public domain in the September 2002 dossier, continued to insist it had separate sources which confirmed its statement.
Lord Butler's report revealed the accusations against Iraq concerned not only Niger, but the war-ravaged, mineral-rich country of the Democratic Republic of Congo. An IAEA spokesman said that the Vienna-based body responsible for monitoring Iraqi compliance with UN resolutions on nuclear issues, had not been informed of the specific intelligence on the two countries. . A spokesman, Mark Gwozdecky, said: "We did not see any indication of any violation, but we remain open to reopening the investigation if the information is made available to us."
Governments are bound by UN resolutions to submit to the IAEA any information concerning illegal Iraqi weapons.
Let's see what Britain comes up with.
See my post from yesterday that also questions precisely why the Butler report seems to deliberately obscure what were its "multiple" sources for the uranium in Africa claim.