# Yellowcake Niger forgery

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Yellowcake Niger forgery," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/yellowcake-niger-forgery/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The fabricated intelligence document claiming Iraq had attempted to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger; passed to the U.S. via the British (originally from the Italians); identified by CIA analysts including John Kiriakou as a forgery on sight ("it's not even in the right font"); pulled from President George W. Bush's State of the Union draft by Colin Powell; reinserted by Vice President Dick Cheney; pulled out by the CIA again; delivered in the 2003 State of the Union address anyway.*

- **Claim:** Iraq tried to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger to build a nuclear weapon
- **Origin chain:** Italian government → British government → US
- **Kiriakou's verdict on the document:** "It's a forgery. … It's not even in the right font."
- **Speech-edit history (per Kiriakou):** Pulled by Colin Powell; reinserted by Dick Cheney; pulled again by CIA; delivered in the State of the Union anyway

The **Yellowcake Niger forgery** was the fabricated intelligence document claiming that Iraq had attempted to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger. Per [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou), the document was *"a forgery"* on its face. Kiriakou and his boss examined the original British report: *"I said, 'It's a forgery.' And he said, '100 percent it's a forgery.' I said, 'It's not even in the right font. It's like somebody just sat at their computer and wrote this pretend intelligence report and then they wrote top secret at the top and the bottom. … It's not even in the right format.'"*[1][2]

## State of the Union edit history

Per Kiriakou — who at the time was the executive assistant to the CIA's Deputy Director for Operations and was handling the agency's review of the speech draft — Colin Powell came to CIA headquarters on a Sunday night to do part of the reading. The Yellowcake line was pulled from the draft. Two days later it was back in. *"My boss [said], 'Powell took that out. Somebody put it back in.' Well, Dick Cheney put it back in. So I said, 'We can't let the president say that the Iraqis have a nuclear program. It's not true.' So we took it back out."*[3][4]

It was reinserted again. President George W. Bush delivered the line in the 2003 State of the Union address. Kiriakou, watching with his girlfriend (later second wife, also a senior CIA officer): *"I turned to her and I said, 'This is what the war is going to be about — this lie that they have weapons of mass destruction.'"*[4][5] Kiriakou has since summarized the entire episode in blunter terms elsewhere: the yellowcake and broader WMD justification for the invasion was, in his view, simply *"a cover to justify an illegal invasion of Iraq."*[6]

## See also

- [Ahmed Chalabi](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ahmed-chalabi)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account | John Kiriakou | Bidoun Waraq Podcast (2026-02-26), at 2:11:37. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=7897s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-kuwait-invasion/
2. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account | John Kiriakou | Bidoun Waraq Podcast (2026-02-26), at 2:12:08. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=7928s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-kuwait-invasion/
3. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account | John Kiriakou | Bidoun Waraq Podcast (2026-02-26), at 2:09:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=7774s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-kuwait-invasion/
4. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account | John Kiriakou | Bidoun Waraq Podcast (2026-02-26), at 2:10:36. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=7836s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-kuwait-invasion/
5. Invasion of Kuwait: The American Intelligence Account | John Kiriakou | Bidoun Waraq Podcast (2026-02-26), at 2:11:07. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJq6inqowW4&t=7867s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-02-26-bidoun-waraq-kuwait-invasion/
6. Radio Liberty interview, 4-15-10, John Kiriakou (former (2019-06-19), at 39:52. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPfqguIwcqU&t=2392s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2019-06-19-soundwaves-2000/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/yellowcake-niger-forgery/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt