Iraqi Information Minister Was Involved in Attempt to Purchase Uranium

Former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson said it was former Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed Sahhaf who in 1999 approached an official in Niger about expanding trade and possibly buying uranium, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, July 17, 2003).

Wilson was sent by the CIA to Niger in 2002 to investigate reports of the unsuccessful Iraqi effort.

In a new book, Wilson said the Nigerien official interpreted Sahhaf’s overture on trade as a possible effort to purchase uranium. Wilson also wrote that he did not learn the identity of the Iraqi official until early this year, when he spoke again with the Nigerien official.

Sahhaf, who could not be reached for comment yesterday, was interviewed but not detained once the U.S. military took control of Iraq, the Post reported.

“He wasn’t wanted for anything. Unfortunately, being a bad spokesman is not a crime,” a U.S. official said (Susan Schmidt, Washington Post, April 30).

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