After Niger's missing uranium that allegedly ended up in Iraq - only to be exposed for a blatant lie - the African lotto has now chosen the Congo as the site where uranium has "allegedly" gone missing. But, in truth, it is nothing but media spin of an altogether different story.

The very week that Scooter Libby was found guilty in what began as the White House trying to pretend Saddam Hussein had bought uranium from Niger, it seems "someone" was at it again. During the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Board of governors meeting in Vienna on March 5-8, 2007, it was claimed that uranium bars had vanished from the Congo. Immediately, Tehran was pushed forward as those responsible. Clearly, the Iraq script is being run once again, with the "q"s now changed into "n"s.
According to Kinshasa's Le Phare newspaper (March 7, 2007), "more than 100 bars of uranium as well as an unknown quantity of uranium contained in helmet-shaped cases, had disappeared from the nuclear centre in Kinshasa as part of a vast trafficking [operation]." The Democratic Republic of the Congo's Commissioner for atomic energy Professor Fortunat Lumu and his associate were arrested over allegations of uranium smuggling. The Congo's state prosecutor, Tshimanga Mukeba said that Lumu is being "questioned regarding the alleged disappearance of unspecified quantities of uranium in recent years." He is accused of "orchestrating illicit contracts to produce and sell uranium".

While the names of the alleged buyers were not revealed, the evolving consensus within the Western media, based on an "authoritative" August 2006 Sunday Times report is that Tehran might be behind the uranium smuggling operation. Tehran as in the capital of the country that the Bush Administration wants to invade next. Britain's Sunday Times cited a UN source dated July 18, 2006, reporting that uranium 238 had been smuggled out of the Lubumbashi mines in the Congo. According to Tanzanian customs officials quoted by the Sunday Times, the shipment was "destined for the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas". The radioactive shipment had apparently been intercepted in Dar Es Salaam in October of 2005 "during a routine check".
According to the Sunday Times report entitled "Iran's plot to mine uranium in Africa", "there is no doubt" that huge quantities of uranium 238 were smuggled out of the Congo. In the same article, the Sunday Times asserts, without evidence, that Iran supported terror cells in the UK which "may be prepared to mount attacks against nuclear power plants in Britain. Intelligence circulating in Whitehall suggests that sleeper cells linked to Tehran have been conducting reconnaissance at some nuclear sites in preparation for a possible attack."
The [Tanzanian] customs officer, who spoke to The Sunday Times on condition he was not named (yet another "anonymous source"), added: "The container [of smuggled uranium bars] was put in a secure part of the port and it was later taken away, by the Americans, I think, or at least with their help. We have all been told not to talk to anyone about this."

A vital question is whether the Congo struck a deal? The mine has officially been closed since 1961, before the country's independence from Belgium, but the UN investigators have told the security council that they found evidence of illegal mining still going on at the site. In 1999, there were reports that the Congolese authorities had tried to re-open the mine with the help of North Korea. In recent years miners are said to have broken open the lids and extracted ore from the shafts, while police and local authorities turned a blind eye. It seems more likely that the Congo itself is trying to use an illegal source of income and as it has now been found it, it co-operates "willingly" in assigning blame to whichever country is identified as a threat to democracy. It seems that this paid off: World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz arrived in Kinshasa on March 8. Following a meeting with President Joseph Kabila, Wolfowitz announced a 1.4 billion dollar financial support to the Congo's post-war reconstruction.

The article is of interest as it shows that in August 2006, all items that identified Iran as a "rogue nation" were listed: smuggled 238 uranium destined to Iran, the involvement of Iran and North Korea in the Congo's uranium economy, Iranian terrorist sleeper cells in the Congo, Iranian terrorists inside Britain, the UN sanctions committee takes note of the smuggled uranium, a British parliamentary committee warning the government of Tony Blair that an Iranian sponsored terrorist attack could take place in Britain... it looks like the perfect pretext for the British government to do something about this "rogue state".

But in truth, The Sunday Times alleged "Iran connection" relied on a July 18, 2006 UN Letter from the Chairman of the Security Council Committee, which it selectively misquoted and distorted. The quoted UN document and report of the Group of Experts on the DRC, while analysing the smuggling of uranium, does not even mention Iran. With regard to the report quoting Tanzanian customs officials, the shipment pertained to a relatively small amount of uranium ore (100 kg which contains about 70 grams of fissile U-235) bound for land-locked Kazakhstan via the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas: "The shipment was destined for smelting in the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, delivered via Bandar Abbas, Iran's biggest port." In short: the real culprits seems to be Kazakhstan, not Iran.
So what is really going on? While the Western media have underscored an alleged " Iranian connection", the undercover network described by the Congo authorities refers to illegal sales to "companies registered in Britain, South Africa and the Seychelles". It seems that the specific focus of the investigation is Brinkley Mining, registered in the UK with subsidiaries in South Africa and the Seychelles, headed by Gerard Holden.
The Daily Telegraph's coverage of the evolving uranium scandal deflects attention away from the real story, and tries to blame Iran, as there has been "a series of allegations" implicating both Iran and the Sicilian Mafia, the newspaper claims. USA Today in an article entitled "U.N. cuts Iran nuke aid amid uranium-smuggling claims" goes one step further. It states emphatically that uranium was smuggled to Iran, and that the suspension of IAEA technical aid to Iran by the Board of governors meeting in Vienna (5-8 March 2007) was the direct result of Iran's alleged involvement in the Congo uranium scandal. That is, of course, simply not true. The BBC in a report entitled "DR Congo 'uranium ring smashed' quotes the Minister of Scientific Research Mr Mushi Bonane, "a vast network aimed at the fraudulent exploitation of DR Congo's uranium has been dismantled". "It was a criminal network," he said, without giving any more details. Referring to earlier reports that the two officials had been arrested on suspicion of uranium smuggling, Mr Mushi said that the prospection and exploitation of DR Congo's uranium had not yet started.
However, this report by the BBC is refuted by the BBC's African correspondent Arnaud Zajtman, which provides the "missing details". Reporting from Kinshasa, Zajtman quotes the same statement of the Minister of Scientific Research Mr Mushi Bonane: [ The two officials] "were arrested for having negotiated an agreement with a foreign company pertaining to exploration and production [...]The DRC authorities accuse the officials of the nuclear centre for having reached a partnership agreement with a British company, without obtaining the approval of the government." ("Les autorités congolaises accusent les responsables du centre nucléaire d'avoir passé un partenariat avec une entreprise britannique sans obtenir l'aval du gouvernement." (BBC Afrique, March 9, 2007).

Meanwhile, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei spoke to the press about Iran's nuclear programme and his upcoming visit to the Democratic People´s Republic of Korea (DPRK/North Korea). He told reporters that the IAEA continued to be in a "stalemate" when it came to verification of Iran´s nuclear programme and that it was not in a position to resolve "outstanding issues of concerns". "We have been going through the verification process for the last four years and unless Iran is able to provide answers to the Agency about our concerns, then we will continue to be in a position where we have to reserve judgment about their programme", the Director General said. This is, of course, sufficient for the Bush Administration to repeat the Iraq scenario, which equally highlighted Iraq's "continued" stalemating of the UN weapon inspections, the infamous "Weapons of Mass Destruction". No doubt to be continued...

> Based on a report by Michel Chossudovsky. Chossudovsky is the author of America's "War on Terrorism". He is Professor of Economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Center for Research on Globalization.