Forty years ago, two uranium mines began to operate around Arlit, deep
in the Sahara desert, 1,200 miles from the Atlantic Ocean and 500 miles
from Niamey, the capital of the state of Niger. David Harrison, writing
for The Daily Telegraph, recently visited the vast mining "complex
of neatly carved quarries, lorries bumping around in clouds of gray
dust, and flat-topped sandstone slagheaps." For Niger, one of the
poorest countries in the world, the uranium discovery was a huge blessing
because of the jobs and the hard currency it helped to produce.
Until last fall, only residents of Niger and experts in the extraction
and use of uranium showed any interest in the Arlit mines. Then suddenly
Tony Blair, the British prime minister, alleged British intelligence
to have discovered--from "independent sources"--that Iraq's
dictator Saddam Hussein bought uranium from Niger for the production
of nuclear weapons.
Executives and other employees of the two uranium extracting companies,
Somair and Cominak, responded to Blair's claim "with surprise,
disbelief, amusement and denials." Bernard Debacque, the production
director of Somair, explained why he considers Blair's unsubstantiated
allegations unacceptable.
The extracted uranium ore is taken to a nearby plant where it is turned
into a yellow powder, known as "yellowcake," and packed into
"hermetically sealed metal drums that bear the name of the mine,
the production date, and an individual number. "That way,"
explained Debacque, "if any were missing it would be obvious."
A convoy of trucks takes the drums to Parakou in Benin, loaded onto
trains to the harbor of Cotonou, from where the yellowcake is shipped
to France. "The cargo is guarded by gendarmes all along the route
and the papers are checked at least five times." Could not the
yellowcake get lost or stolen on the way to France? Somair's director
general called that possibility "the stuff of science fiction."
Because yellowcake is very heavy, "you cannot just pick up a drum
and take it away, and you need a lot to do anything useful with it."
Since 1985, moreover, all movement of uranium from Niger has been closely
controlled by the government of France and could not be done without
its knowledge and permission. All international production and trade
of uranium is also closely monitored by the International Atomic Energy
Agency. Seventy-five percent of Niger's yellowcake is uranium that would
have to be enriched before it could be used for the production of a
nuclear weapon.
Reporters have so far found nobody in Niger or France or the Atomic
Energy Commission who gives any credence to Blair's blunt boast. Not
even he has implicated the French government with any kind of uranium
sale to Iraq at any time. The prime minister of Niger assured the media
that "We have never discussed uranium with Iraq."
In the meantime, President Bush admitted that he should not have mentioned
the British allegation of a uranium deal between Iraq and Niger in his
State of the Union address. Prime Minister Blair, however, continues
to defend his discredited assertion without offering any kind of proof.
For Americans, the spectacle of Tony Blair refusing to tell the truth
is sadly reminiscent of President Nixon's stonewalling the investigation
of the break-in he ordered at the Watergate Apartments and of President
Clinton's refusal to answer a simple question about his relationship
with a subordinate employee.
National leaders who stonewall the public's right to know usually suffer
most not from volunteering the truth but from persisting in the net
of lies they weave.