Several of the names and titles of officials mentioned in the documents are incorrect. For example, one of the letters is purportedly signed by Niger's President Tandja Mamadou. The signature is said to be an obvious forgery. An unnamed IAEA official will tell Reuters, "It doesn't even look close to the signature of the president. I'm not a (handwriting) expert but when I looked at it my jaw dropped." [Unknown, n.d.; Globe and Mail, 3/8/2003; Reuters, 3/26/2003; New Yorker, 3/31/2003; Knight Ridder, 6/13/2003] Another, dated October 10, 2000, is signed "Alle Elhadj Habibou" --Niger's foreign minister who had not been in office since 1989. [Unknown, n.d.; Reuters, 3/26/2003; New Yorker, 3/31/2003; Knight Ridder, 6/13/2003] Another letter includes the forged signature and seal of Wissam al-Zahawie, Iraq's former ambassador to the Vatican. When Mr. Al-Zahawie is interviewed by the IAEA, he informs the agency that it was standard procedure for all diplomatic notes to be initialed and sealed, while letters were only to be signed--with no seal. He explains that correspondences were never both signed and sealed. [Unknown, n.d.; Independent, 8/10/2003]
In addition to problems with signatures and seals, there are other problems as well. One letter is on the wrong letterhead. [Knight Ridder, 6/13/2003] The "letterhead was out of date and referred to Niger's Supreme Military Council' from the pre-1999 era--which would be like calling Russia the Soviet Union," reports Reuters. [Unknown, n.d.; Reuters, 3/26/2003]
Another letter, purported to be from the president of Niger, refers to his authority under the country's obsolete 1966 constitution. [Unknown, n.d.; Reuters, 3/26/2003]
Also, in some letters, French words are misspelled and dates do not correspond to the correct days of the week. [Mercury News (San Jose), 3/18/2003]
The IAEA also points out that the amount of uranium which Iraq is purportedly interested in purchasing is unrealistic. Seymour Hersh, writing for the New Yorker, explains: "The large quantity of uranium involved should have been another warning sign. Niger's yellow cake' comes from two uranium mines controlled by a French company, with its entire output pre-sold to nuclear power companies in France, Japan, and Spain. Five hundred tons can't be siphoned off without anyone noticing,' ... [an] IAEA official told me." [New Yorker, 3/31/2003 Sources: Unnamed senior official from the IAEA]
Entity Tags: Mamadou Tandja, Mohamed ElBaradei, Alle Elhadj Habibou, Wissam al-Zahawie, Jacques Bautes
Timeline Tags: Events Leading to Iraq Invasion
2/17/03 the PRIMARY threat posed by SH is PROVEN TO BE FALSE.
war was illegal.