“The first sketchy report on the Iraq-Niger uranium sale was cabled by SISMI [Italy’s national military intelligence agency] to the CIA’s operations directorate on October 15, 2001. Initially, American intelligence analysts were not impressed by the report. CIA, Energy Department, and DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency] analysts all considered the allegation ‘possible,’ though short on details. The State Department’s INR [Bureau of Intelligence and Research] thought such a deal was unlikely because a French consortium tightly controlled Niger’s uranium industry.”
– Michael Isikoff and David Corn, Hubris, Page 90