Pretty much concocted by John Huston and Truman Capote as it was filmed, this shaggy-dog story about some bizarre scoundrels and a fraudulent uranium deal is to be savored less for its bark than the bite of its throwaway lines - Monday at 4 P.M. on Bravo.

Forbes Magazine has published a lengthy article rebutting the oft-quoted New York Times piece that suggested Giustra took advantage of his friendship with Clinton to seal the profitable uranium deal in Khazakstan in 2005.

The Senate Intelligence Committee, in a report released Friday, has provided the most comprehensive review of what went wrong in the Niger case, which became a major political issue last year after documents that described the uranium deal were discredited as forgeries.

Vice President Al Gore, who helped negotiate the Russian uranium deal, or President Clinton could stop it and should.

Two of the most prominent critics of the privatization plan are Thomas Neff, the scientist who conceived of the Russian uranium deal, and Joseph Stiglitz, who evaluated the economics of the sale during his term as President Clinton's chief economic adviser.

Experts Are Split Given the uncertainty, American experts are split on whether the uranium deal is a boon or a boondoggle.

On Dec. 4, Nuclear Fuel, a Washington trade publication, reported that the Geneva negotiators "recently failed to reach agreement on key points during talks over mutual monitoring of nuclear material movements under the swords-to-plowshares high-enriched uranium deal."

Has Iran tried to get too much from the uranium deal?

I'm told by a person involved in the Niger caper that more than a year ago the vice president's office asked for an investigation of the uranium deal, so a former U.S. ambassador to Africa was dispatched to Niger.

A8 Kazakhstan voiced gratitude for an American uranium deal.