The evidence that Iraq sought to obtain uranium from an African country, Niger, played a major role in the case against Iraq. The evidence was a central component of the assertion that Iraq was developing nuclear weapons, the only true weapon of mass destruction. The evidence was used by the British in their dossier against Iraq, by the State Department in its response to Iraq’s arms declaration, by the President in his State of the Union address, and by numerous senior Administration officials, including Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. There was only one problem with this evidence: as the International Atomic Energy Agency revealed on March 7, 2003, the evidence was forged.

This fact sheet describes how the forged nuclear evidence was used by U.S. and British officials and the tremendous coverage in the media it received.