Niger : it's US & UK domestic politics

In a reminder that the politics of blame are overlaid on real countries, the African country of Niger has demanded UK's Blair to prove it's complicity in the Iraq uranium trade. Prime Minister Hama Hamadou reminds the world that Niger's forces fought against Saddam Hussein in the first Gulf War and he asks: "Would we really send material to somebody whom we had fought against and who could destroy half the world with a nuclear bomb?"

Through all the claims and denials, British Prime Minister Tony Blair has refused to retract the now disproven claim that Iraq actively sought uranium from Niger. Hamadou puts the scandal squarely where it belongs: as games in U.S. and U.K. domestic politics:

"We cannot get involved in the politics of the world's most powerful nations. We are a poor country. Our uranium is tightly controlled and our priorities are to produce enough food to feed our people and provide education for all of our children."