Reply #7: The original story,

[Igel]

as far as has been made public, goes back to at least two, and probably 3, reports from a Nigerien trade official about conversations with the Iraq trade rep. The conversations were held in 1999, and were fairly quickly reported.

"We want increased trade ... no, not in dates or other things on the table."
"So ... well, you know, *some* exports are prohibited." (with yellocake the biggie)
"Let's get lunch, I'm peckish."
(quotes are entirely made up: the gist--more trade desired by Iraqis, yellowcake ruled out by Nigeriens, topic sharply changed at once by Iraqis)

The first fellow checking out the rumors about the fabled (now forged) documents, ex-military, IIRC, came back with the same report: no yellowcake obtained, nothing about documents, but there's this story--independent of the documents, and presumably unknown to him beforehand. Wilson went a year or so later, and filed essentially the same report. In fact, apart from the presumption entailed by numerous MSM and non-MSM editorializing, there's no claim by anybody that Iraq ever got yellowcake after 1991.

The Nigeriens recanted their thrice-told story in late 2002 or early 2003, but nobody knows if the recanting reflects the truth or French pressure. After all, the French are the BMOC in Niger, which also is an OIC country, and expected to be the BMOC in Iraq post-sanctions. In any event, the CIA backed off the tale as now too obfuscated, but that was late in the game.