-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Source of Forged Niger-Iraq Uranium Documents
'Identified'
Date: Fri, 4 Nov 2005 23:58:44 -0000
From: NLP Wessex
The so called new 'revelation' below from the New York Times
(that the Iraq Niger forgeries were disseminated by Rocco
Martino) was reported by both the Sunday Times and the Financial
Times as long ago as August 2004. Nonetheless the New York Times
(as well as other news outlets) today presents this as 'news'.
Martino had told the Sunday Times in 2004 that he was working on
the instructions of Italian foreign intelligence service SISMI
(see: Weapons Of Mass Financial Destruction, 'Fight Smart', 30
October 2005). The New York Times reports a different version of
events.
However, the most significant development today (also reported
by the New York Times) is the news that the FBI has 'shut down'
its two year investigation of the forgeries apparently giving
the US and Italian governments/intelligence services a clean
bill of health (at least as far as it is possible to tell from
this report). So who does the FBI say forged and disseminated
the documents? That we are not told.
How long will it be, therefore, until we find a 'suicided' Rocco
Martino hanging under a bridge somewhere (see 'Calvi murder
trial opens in Rome' - BBC, 6 October 2005) before he is able to
give more evidence about what he really knows, including his
claim of delivering the forged documents to MI6 in London on
behalf of SISMI?
NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX
nlpwessex@btinternet.com
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex
Tearing Down Biotech's 'Berlin Wall'
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/genomicsparadigm.htm
The Acceptable Face Of Ag-biotech
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/monsantoMASpossibilities.htm
"There is a parallel investigation into the uranium forgeries
themselves that has been going on for a couple of years now lead
by the FBI. But once again few are holding their breath -
particularly given the way the Bureau's previous investigation
into the post 9/11 anthrax attacks appears to have been
frustrated once it became clear that the evidence was leading to
people at the Department of Defence as the source of the
material used."
Weapons Of Mass Financial Destruction
'Fight Smart', 30 October 2005
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/110405Z.shtml
Source of Forged Niger-Iraq Uranium Documents Identified
By Elaine Sciolino and Elisabetta Povoledo
The New York Times
Friday 04 November 2005
Rome - Italy's spymaster identified an Italian occasional spy
named Rocco Martino on Thursday as the disseminator of forged
documents that described efforts by Iraq to buy uranium ore from
Niger for a nuclear weapons program, three lawmakers said
Thursday.
The spymaster, Gen. Nicoḷ Pollari, director of the Italian
military intelligence agency known as Sismi, disclosed that Mr.
Martino was the source of the forged documents in closed-door
testimony to a parliamentary committee that oversees secret
services, the lawmakers said.
Senator Massimo Brutti, a member of the committee, told
reporters that General Pollari had identified Mr. Martino as a
former intelligence informer who had been "kicked out of the
agency." He did not say Mr. Martino was the forger.
The revelation came on a day when the Federal Bureau of
Investigation confirmed that it had shut down its two-year
investigation into the origin of the forged documents.
The information about Iraq's desire to acquire the ore, known as
yellowcake, was used by the Bush administration to help justify
the invasion of Iraq, notably by President Bush in his State of
the Union address in January 2003. But the information was later
revealed to have been based on forgeries.
The documents were the basis for sending a former diplomat,
Joseph C. Wilson IV, on a fact-finding mission to Niger that
eventually exploded into an inquiry that led to the indictment
and resignation last week of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief
of staff, I. Lewis Libby.
Mr. Martino has long been suspected of being responsible for
peddling the false documents. News reports have quoted him as
saying he obtained them through a contact at the Niger Embassy
here. But this was the first time his role was formally
disclosed by the intelligence agency.
Neither Mr. Martino nor his lawyer, Giuseppe Placidi, were
available for comment.
Senator Brutti also told reporters that Italian intelligence had
warned Washington in early 2003 that the Niger-Iraq documents
were false.
"At about the same time as the State of the Union address, they
said that the dossier doesn't correspond to the truth," Senator
Brutti said. He said he did not know whether the warning was
given before or after President Bush's address.
He made the claim more than once, but gave no supporting
evidence. Amid confusing statements by various lawmakers, he
later appeared to backtrack in conversations with both The
Associated Press and Reuters, saying that because Sismi never
had the documents, it could not comment on their merit.
There had long been doubts within the United States intelligence
community about the authenticity of the yellowcake documents,
and references to it had been deleted from other presentations
given at the time.
Senator Luigi Malabarba, who also attended Thursday's hearing,
said in a telephone interview that General Pollari had told the
committee that Mr. Martino was "offering the documents not on
behalf of Sismi but on behalf of the French" and that Mr.
Martino had told prosecutors in Rome that he was in the service
of French intelligence.
A senior French intelligence official interviewed Wednesday in
Paris declined to say whether Mr. Martino had been a paid agent
of France, but he called General Pollari's assertions about
France's responsibility "scandalous."
General Pollari also said that no Italian intelligence agency
officials were involved in either forging or distributing the
documents, according to both Senator Brutti and the committee
chairman, Enzo Bianco.
Committee members said they were shown documents defending
General Pollari, including a copy of a classified letter from
Robert S. Muller III, the director of the F.B.I., dated July 20,
which praised Italy's cooperation with the bureau.
In Washington, an official at the bureau confirmed the substance
of the letter, whose contents were first reported Tuesday in the
leftist newspaper L'Unità. The letter stated that Italy's
cooperation proved the bureau's theory that the false documents
were produced and disseminated by one or more people for
personal profit, and ruled out the possibility that the Italian
service had intended to influence American policy, the newspaper
said.
As a result, the letter said, according to both the F.B.I.
official and L'Unità, the bureau had closed its investigation
into the origin of the documents.
The F.B.I. official declined to be identified by name.
After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Italy's military
intelligence service sent reports to the United States and
Britain claiming that Iraq was actively trying to acquire
uranium, according to current and former intelligence officials.
Senator Brutti told reporters on Thursday that indeed Sismi had
provided information about Iraq's desire to acquire uranium from
Niger as early as the 1990's, but that it had never said the
information was credible.
Thursday's hearing followed a three-part series in La
Repubblica, which said General Pollari had knowingly provided
the United States and Britain with forged documents. The
newspaper, a staunch opponent of Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi, also reported that General Pollari had acted at the
behest of Mr. Berlusconi, who was said to be eager to help
President Bush in the search for weapons in Iraq.
Mr. Berlusconi has denied such accounts.
La Repubblica said General Pollari had held a meeting on Sept.
9, 2002, with Stephen J. Hadley, then the deputy national
security adviser. Mr. Hadley, now the national security adviser,
has said that he met General Pollari on that date, but that they
did not discuss the Niger-Iraq issue.
"Nobody participating in that meeting or asked about that
meeting has any recollection of a discussion of natural uranium,
or any recollection of any documents being passed," Mr. Hadley
told a briefing on Wednesday in Washington. "And that's also my
recollection."
At the time, Mr. Hadley took responsibility for including the
faulty information in Mr. Bush's State of the Union address.
Extract From
'Fight Smart' Update - 30 October 2005
'It Was The Oil Jim,
But Much More So Than We Knew It'
Weapons Of Mass Financial Destruction
Iraq War And The Battle To Save The Petro-Dollar
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/WATSaddamEuroOil.htm
Berlusconi Visits White House
As Italian Parliament Passes Names Of Alleged Iraq Uranium
Document Forgers
To 'Plamegate' Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald
"......It is not clear how far the powers delegated to
Fitzgerald under his appointment in the case allow him to go.
However, given the history of previous investigations into cases
of US political conspiracy, as in the Iran-Contra and 'October
Surprise' hearings, not everyone is holding their breath that
Fitzgerald will branch out far enough, although the moral
justification for pursuing such a line of inquiry continues to
intensify.
There is a parallel investigation into the uranium forgeries
themselves that has been going on for a couple of years now lead
by the FBI. But once again few are holding their breath -
particularly given the way the Bureau's previous investigation
into the post 9/11 anthrax attacks appears to have been
frustrated once it became clear that the evidence was leading to
people at the Department of Defence as the source of the
material used.
According to the Washington Post 16 September 2005 "Four years
after the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks, one of the most
exhaustive investigations in FBI history has yielded no arrests
and is showing signs of growing cold as officials have sharply
reduced the number of agents on the case.... The investigation
has been so expansive that authorities now are in the process of
taking inventory. The FBI and postal inspectors have spent
months piecing together a voluminous internal report that will
review the scope of the investigation and explore issues
including what has been the prevailing theory: The culprit is a
U.S. scientist who had access to the high-grade anthrax and the
knowledge of how to physically manipulate it and use it as a
weapon. That theory emerged early in the investigation and
remains viable today, authorities said.... The report will
include the names of various people deemed to be 'persons of
interest' over the years, as well as updates on the scientific
tests. Authorities long ago narrowed down the type of anthrax to
a strain called Ames but have been unable to identify the lab of
origin. Much attention has focused on the U.S. Army Medical
Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, housed at Fort
Detrick in the Frederick area.Authorities hope that the report,
which is to be completed soon and forwarded to FBI Director
Robert S. Mueller III, will provide a concise road map of the
probe and help determine its future direction. Current and
former law enforcement authorities said investigators and
prosecutors often prepare such reports in complex, high-profile
cases that go unresolved for years. 'It doesn't sound like
they're close to cracking the case,' said Eric H. Holder Jr., a
Washington lawyer who was deputy attorney general during the
Clinton administration.'.... Meanwhile, in the United States,
FBI agents and scientists have been working to match the gene
sequence of the mailed anthrax spores to a specific laboratory.
They remain particularly interested in such laboratories as Fort
Detrick, Louisiana State University and Dugway Proving Ground in
Utah.... In light of the obstacles facing investigators, some
relatives of the victims are wondering if the anthrax case will
ever be solved. 'It's been out there too long. I don't think
they're going to find out' who did it, said Thomas L. Morris III
of Suitland, whose father, D.C. postal worker Thomas Morris Jr.,
died of inhalation anthrax in October 2001."
It appears there may be people within the system who would
prefer if the case is never solved.
According to a BBC report 18 August 2002 entitled 'Anthrax
killer is US defence insider' "An FBI forensic linguistics
expert believes the US anthrax attacks were carried out by a
senior scientist from within America's biological-defence
community. Professor Don Foster - who helped convict Unabomber
Ted Kaczynski and unveiled Joe Klein as the author of the novel
Primary Colors - says the evidence points to someone with
high-ranking military and intelligence connections. Speaking
about the investigation for the first time, Prof Foster told the
BBC he had identified two suspects who had both worked for the
CIA, the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious
Diseases (USAMRIID) and other classified military operations....
he fears the investigation is now being hampered in its
gathering of vital documents that could lead to the killer....
He said: 'It's very frustrating. Ordinarily with the FBI if
there's some documents needed - known writings - boom, they're
on my desk the next day. 'My two suspects both appear to have
CIA connections. These two agencies, the CIA and the FBI, are
sometimes seen as rivals. 'My anxiety is that the FBI agents
assigned to this case are not getting full and complete
co-operation from the US military, CIA and witnesses who might
have information about this case...."
The US anthrax attacks were a post-9/11 psychologically
traumatising episode that played a key role in sensitising US
public pinion to the 'need' to tackle Iraq's alleged biological
and chemical weapons capability.
However, if the FBI has so far been unwilling or unable to come
up with some names for indictment in the anthrax and uranium
cases, it appears that the Italian parliament is prepared to be
a little bolder when it comes to its own investigation of the
latter. Some considerable time ago the source of the forged
uranium documents had been traced to Italy.
The names of the alleged forgers (two former CIA officers) are
now in the public domain and are reported to have been handed
over to Fitzgerald during the course of his 'Plamegate'
investigations. The information is understood to have been
provided to Fitzgerald by the Italian parliament in a report of
its own findings regarding the uranium saga, although the names
are only in the public domain by virtue of a leak
.............
On 1 August 2004 the Sunday Times in London ran the following
eyebrow-raising disclosure: "The Sunday Times has tracked down a
mysterious middleman who was a key figure in the notorious Niger
uranium hoax before the Iraq war, writes Nicholas Rufford.
Speaking to a reporter in a cafe in Brussels last week, he
claimed he had been an unwitting dupe in the scam, which
embarrassed both Tony Blair and George W Bush over Saddam
Hussein’s phantom weapons of mass destruction. The middleman, an
Italian who uses the name Giacomo, is a small-time tipster said
to have worked for Italy’s armed forces and intelligence
services. He says Sismi, the Italian foreign intelligence
service, used him to disseminate fake documents purporting to
show Saddam had tried to buy uranium for nuclear bombs from
Niger. I received a call from a former colleague in Sismi,'
Giacomo said. 'I was told a woman in the Niger embassy in Rome
had a gift for me. I met her and she gave me documents. Sismi
wanted me to pass on the documents but they didn’t want anyone
to know they had been involved.' He came into possession of a
bundle of telexes, letters and contracts that appeared to show
Saddam had struck a deal with Niger for 500 tons of uranium ore,
enough when refined to make several weapons. Giacomo said he
regretted
