How to buy Yellowcake aka What Saddam didn't know but Lehman Bros did

As I'm watching Thursday's The Daily Show , I am stunned beyond belief that Lehman Bros has 450,000 pounds of uranium. And this time, it's actual, real, solid stuff you can touch. Not like all the other commodities they've been selling and insuring and not really having.

You can buy uranium yellowcake? Didn't we invade a country and kill thousands on the allegation Saddam Hussein had bought some from Nigeria? Wasn't war threatened for a few years against Iran for their nuclear program?

And you can buy yellowcake on the open market?

There's a commodities market for yellowcake?! And we bomb countries for having some?!?!

Uranium is a very prominent element on Earth. It's found in dirt all over the planet. In its natural state, it's weakly radioactive and not a problem. But it's easy to break apart and be somewhat stable. You can power nuclear power plants with it and nuclear bombs. And I'm sure the internet has all the schematics possible to do so. Actually having the technology to not accidentally blow yourself up in the process, that's another story.

I know that several countries use nuclear plants to produce their energy. But I would figure regulation would be strict on this considering the potential for badness (and not just on the end of a missle). It strikes me as odd that it's an open market that investment banks can buy it up. Sure, uranium commodity trading is "highly regulated," but wasn't the stock market?

We are one very strange nation. If I buy a pound of uranium, will I be invaded and occupied in the global war on terror?