NIGER EMBASSY IN ROME FORGED DOCS USED AS BASIS FOR IRAQ WAR

[kpete]

Nigerian embassy forged documents used as basis for Iraq war, paper to report

RAW STORY
Published: Saturday April 8, 2006

TWO employees of the Niger embassy in Rome were responsible for the forgery of a notorious set of documents used to help justify the Iraq war, an official investigation allegedly found, The London Sunday Times' Mick Smith will report in Sunday papers, RAW STORY has learned.

RAW STORY received an exclusive advance of the story. Excerpts follow. More soon.

According to NATO sources, the investigation has evidence that Niger's consul and its ambassador's personal assistant faked a contract to show Saddam Hussein had bought uranium ore from the impoverished west African country.

The documents, which emerged in 2002, were used in a State Department fact sheet on Iraq's weapons programme to build the case for war. They were denounced as forgeries by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) shortly before the 2003 invasion.

The revelation spawned a series of conspiracy theories, most alleging that the British, Italians, or even Dick Cheney, the American vice-president, had had a hand in forging them to back the case for war.

The story was still reverberating around Washington last week with claims that President George W Bush had authorised the leaking of the identity of a CIA agent whose husband cast doubt on the Niger link.

According to the sources, an official investigation believes Adam Maiga Zakariaou, the consul, and Laura Montini, the ambassador's personal assistant, known as La Signora, forged the papers for money.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Nigerian_embassy_forged_documents_used_as_0408.html

[Terran1212]

1. I'm so SURPRISED!

Extreme sarcasm!

[baldguy]

71. Right

Anyone who has been paying attention has known this. The question is, at long last will the SCLM even report it?

[ShaneGR]

75. READ THE ARTICLE, it says the FRENCH are responsible....

I'll quote it for you from the Raw Story website.

"""The French, who were watching for an attempt by Saddam to obtain uranium from Niger, showed great interest and told Martino they wanted more information. Martino asked Montini if she could get a copy of a contract for Niger to supply Iraq with uranium.

"Martino told me that if he was able to obtain a copy of a contract then he would have earned a lot of money from an unspecified 'intelligence' organisation," she told the magistrate.

The lure of the money was apparently too much, the SUNDAY TIMES reveals.

"She was trusted personal assistant. The consul Zakariaou . . . needed money. He would help her forge the documents," the Nato sources said. """"



So in other words, the French helped supply dumbass Bush with enough Intell to fool the US population into going to war with Iraq.

God, that's ironic. Don't you think? It's entirely possible that Bush was also dumb enough to actually believe it. He strikes me as a guy who will believe absolutely anything if the right people say it to him.

[sandnsea]

89. That's some bizarre logic

Because the French were trying to find out about uranium, they're responsible for somebody else forging documents?? How do you figure that?

[seemslikeadream]

2. yes and I have posted many links that elude to all of this

a number of times here

[seemslikeadream]

13. Niger forgeries

I'm trying to be careful with my links I will post one at a time

http://www.prospect.org/weblog/archives/2005/10/index.html#008117

HADLEY NAMED. La Repubblica has a dynamite series this week on the origin of the yellowcake forgeries. Laura Rozen reports:
With Patrick Fitzgerald widely expected to announce indictments in the CIA leaks investigation, questions are again being raised about the murky matter that first led to the appointment of the special counsel: namely, how the Bush White House came into possession of discredited Italian intelligence reports claiming that Iraq sought uranium "yellowcake" from Niger.
The key documents supposedly proving the Iraqi attempt turned out to be crude forgeries on official stationery stolen from the African nation's Rome embassy. Among the most tantalizing aspects of the debate over the Iraq War is the origin of those fake documents and the role of the Italian intelligence services in disseminating them.

In an explosive series of articles appearing this week in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, investigative reporters Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe d'Avanzo reveal how Niccolo Pollari, chief of Italy's military intelligence service, known as SISMI, brought the Niger yellowcake story directly to the White House after his insistent overtures had been rejected by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2001 and 2002.

Today's exclusive report in La Repubblica reveals that Pollari met secretly in Washington on September 9, 2002, with then–Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. Their secret meeting came at a critical moment in the White House campaign to convince Congress and the American public that war in Iraq was necessary to prevent Saddam Hussein from developing nuclear weapons.

The La Repubblica article quotes a Bush administration official saying, "I can confirm that on September 9, 2002, general Nicolo Pollari met Stephen Hadley."

Laura will have more on this story later today.

[radio4progressives]

31. Unless I'm mistaken (?) Raw Story published very lengthy reports

on the Michael Ledeen connection to Niger Forgeries/Italian Intel/Chalabi et al..

I guess it all has to be re-published to remind people what is behind the Niger Forgeries as connected to the Plame Leak affair, it was a while back and memories (like mine)do need refreshing... :hi:

[radio4progressives]

19. Wasn't all this pretty much revealed just before Libby indictment?

It seemed like everything was pretty much pulled together and published in the weeks and days leading up to that big day we were all waiting with baited breath for fitz's press conference - back in the end of October.. we thought then all this would be out by now, i thought anyway..

is this different material and information from all that was published back then?

[seemslikeadream]

21. SISMI's War in Iraq: The Iranian Connection

I'm looking and sorting through all my links now :hi:

http://nuralcubicle.blogspot.com/2005/10/sismis-war-in-iraq-iranian-connection.html


Monday, October 31, 2005
SISMI's War in Iraq: The Iranian Connection

Carlo Bonini and Giuseppi d'Avanzo are at it again. Another three-part blockbuster exposé on the involvement of Italian Military intelligence inside Iraq.

Part I: From Chelabi to Iranian Agents--SISMI's War in Iraq
A strategic summit in Rome with the Pentagon.

ROME: He’s another politico-military intelligence chief. He’s a SISMI man. He makes his way slowly down the narrow hallway of the bar at the Hotel Eden in via Ludovisi. He stops to admire the sky and the attractive skyline of Rome in the April sun (it is 22 April 2003) through the hotel’s large windows. He looks elegant in his Chairman's Committee grisaille. . He selects a table at the center of the terrace. The waiter walks over and solicitously takes his order. The gentleman orders a freshly-squeezed orange juice and a double espresso. The Anglo-American invasion of Iraq began on the night of 19-20 March, thirty-three days earlier.

....

Our man is too disciplined to crow about his successes and too stubborn to be discouraged by defeat. He tells us: It was a novelty, a revolution for our intelligence services. Never before in its history has SISMI been so prominently involved in military ground operations and a major role in planning a war campaign, to boot. The Italian Government? Of course our work was authorized by the Italian Government—are you joking? It was real war, not an exercise! The twenty men we sent to Iraq were risking their lives. He pauses. The espresso arrives. He sips it slowly, his eyes half-closed with satisfaction.

He continues. Twenty men from three SISMI departments were involved: Intelligence, Operations and Counterterrorism. They were divided into small groups which were to operate in and around the areas of Kirkuk, Baghdad and Basrah using outlandish disguises. Each unit was unaware of the identities and the mission of the others. Each unit was ordered to operate within a sector of territory and to work with intelligence “assets” who had already been selected and trained. The objectives were twofold: To identify Iraqi defenses and to evaluate the readiness of the Iraqi armed forces.

....

The story of Italian military intervention in Iraq begins when the resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, Michael Ledeen, sponsored by Defense Minister Antonio Martino, debarks in Rome with Pentagon men in tow to meet a handful of “Iranian exiles.” The meeting is organized by SISMI. In an Agency “safe house” near Piazza di Spagna (however, other sources have told us it was a reserved room in the Parco dei Principi Hotel).

[seemslikeadream]

24. Lawrence Franklin Harold Rhode Michael Ledeen

from link

Twenty-five men are gathered around a large table, covered by maps of Iraq, Iran and Syria. The big cheese are Lawrence Franklin and Harold Rhode of the Office of Special Plans, Michael Ledeen of the AIE, a SISMI center director accompanied by his assistant (the former is a balding man between 46 and 48 years of age; the latter is younger, around 38, with a listening device in his teeth) and some mysterious Iranians.

...

So the Iranians are not exiles. They are not opponents to the regime of the ayatollahs. These men are members of the regime--delegates sent by Tehran. If Washington were asked what the devil the Iranians were doing in Rome on the eve of the invasion, elbow-to-elbow with people from the Pentagon, you would get some solid information. But to make some sense out of the confusion, you have to listen to an American intelligence source, who has requested anonymity. He tells us: You Italians have always underestimated the work of contamination carried out Ahmed Chalabi, the Chairman of the Iraqi National Congress. You tend to omit this chapter from your side of the story because you think Ahmed concerns only the Americans. But that’s not the way it is: he is also your business, ar beyond anything you currently believe or imagine.

So what do we know about Ahmed Chalabi? The darling of the Neocons, Chalabi has been charged by the "hawks" in the Pentagon to pass intel on WMD proliferation to European intelligence agencies supposedly garnered from presumed scientists, who have defected from Baghdad. The person charged with “intelligence gathering” and story invention is Aras Habib Karim, Chalabi’s personal intelligence man. Aras is a key player. He coordinates the Intelligence Collection Programme. He supervises and fabricates the “output” of the dissidents. He is a Shi’ite Kurd just under 50, extremely clever, consumately evil and a magician of double-cross and document forgery. But there is something peculiar about him. The CIA has long considered him an “Iranian agent.” A second key player is an American, Francis Brooke.

The bogus Italian dossier on the Niger uranium turns up--and we don’t know precisely why--in the hands of Chalabi. Brooke is responsible for liaison with Condoleezza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz and between the Pentagon and the Iraqi National Congress. He is more heeded in Tehran than Chalabi.

[Fenris]

25. Please edit your post to 4 paragraphs, per DU copyright rules.

[seemslikeadream]

29. OK

:hi:

[flyarm]

38. here is pdf indictment copy LarryA. Franklin, Steven J.Rosen,&Weissman

Eastern District of Virginia


United States Of America
v.
Larry A Franklin
(counts 1 through 5)

Steven J Rosen
( counts 1 through 3)

Keith Weissman
( count 1)

http://www.fas.org/irp/ops/ci/franklin0805.pdf

[muriel_volestrangler]

32. It's the first I've heard of the Nigerien consul being involved

Have you a theory for why, as Peace Patriot pointed out below, the forgery was so bad, if it was done inside their embassy?

[The Doctor.]

46. So now how long will it take the rest of the US to catch up

to what we've all known all along?

I think that's "allude", BTW.

[seemslikeadream]

50. Excuse me I was very busy

:hi:

looking up about 100 or so links!! You may notice farther down

This is a good day, a Techtonic Day!

[Renew Deal]

3. There is a difference between Niger and Nigeria. Proper form is Nigerien.

That headline is misleading. At first I was wondering how Nigeria got invovled or if it was a mistake. It was a mistake.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger

[in_cog_ni_to]

4. They forged the papers for money GEE! I wonder where that money came from?

I just can't figure out who would pay them to do such a thing!:eyes::sarcasm:

[happydreams]

59. Yep, follow the money

and I'll bet it goes back to the White House.

[catnhatnh]

5. Now let's....

FOLLOW THE MONEY....

[Rex]

6. Says it all right here.

"They were denounced as forgeries by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) shortly before the 2003 invasion."

The UN NEVER authorized the US to invade Iraq! Bush RAN UN weapons inspectors out of Iraq with forewarnings of a massive assault. I bet Dead Eye Dick was shouting with glee at the 'Shock and Awe' campaign. Rummy was probably wrestling his cloned Rummy Battle doll and soiling himself. Bush was reading 'My Pet Monkey'.

[cal04]

7. Rawstory has been asked to hold the story

just posted in LBN
Sorry -- we've been asked to hold this story that I had just posted.)
I think rawstory said he could repost at 4

[Renew Deal]

9. You should correct the headline.

Nigerien

[kpete]

12. whats up

do I need to pull this thread?

[cal04]

17. No. I think he just didn't want it in

LBN.

[Breeze54]

36. To late!!

Holy Shit!!!!!!
I'm so F*CKING pissed!!!!!!
I mean I've been pissed but this is a whole new energy!!!
F*CK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:mad: :nuke: :nuke:

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[seemslikeadream]

10. LEDEEN!!!!!

:hi:

[seemslikeadream]

18. SCOTT McCLELLAN - Press conference

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com /

QUESTION: Thank you. Any more explanation of the Berlusconi-President discussion about Italian intelligence on Iraq -- is this to say that Mr. Fitzgerald's finding that the Niger claim had its genesis in Italian intelligence was wrong?
SCOTT McCLELLAN: Mr. Fitzgerald's -- I'll have to look back at what his finding was. I don't recall the specifics of that.

QUESTION: Fitzgerald found that what we had been calling British intelligence, the document -- the forged document --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Maybe I missed that. I don't think so. I don't think so.

QUESTION: -- alleging an Iraq --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Okay, I don't think he did.

QUESTION: I'm wrong on this?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Maybe I'm wrong. But I don't think he --

QUESTION: That's not ringing any bells.

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Yes.

QUESTION: It's not ringing any bells with other people either.

QUESTION: No, it is, it is. And I can't remember if it's Fitzgerald or somebody else, but there's this is the central issue is --

QUESTION: The central issue was --

QUESTION: -- the source of the --

QUESTION: The source of the forged document was Italy, who handed it to --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: No, the -- we actually briefed on the source of the information back in July of 2003, and the source was the National Intelligence Estimate and British Intelligence. That was the basis for the reference in the President's State of the Union address.

QUESTION: Fitzgerald found an Italian tie, and I presume this is what the discussion between the President and Berlusconi was about.

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Yes, they -- like I said they -- Prime Minister Berlusconi brought it up, and as they indicated, that there wasn't any documents that were provided to us on Niger and uranium by --

QUESTION: Wait, no documents or no intelligence?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?

QUESTION: The press report out of Italy is a transcription -- it's a transcription of the forged documents, not the actual documents themselves. But Berlusconi said yesterday was, no information passed from Italy to the United States.

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Yes, I think he was accurately reflecting what he indicated in the meeting.

QUESTION: So that accurately characterizes the President's position, that the United States never received any intelligence --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Well, Prime Minister Berlusconi was reflecting that within the meeting, and we've previously said in regards to a question that came up about a meeting here at the White House that no one here has any recollection of Niger and uranium being discussed at that meeting, much less any documents being provided.

[Supersedeas]

102. Very interesting exchance...McButtery pants is especially slippery today

[Peace Patriot]

11. Nope, there's something wrong with this story.

The Niger forgeries are often referred to as the "crude" Niger forgeries--easily detectable (wrong dates, wrong officials signing, etc.).

So, if it WAS Niger officials, why did they get all the details wrong? Surely they would know correct dates/names.

I suspect the opposite is true--these Niger embassy people REFUSED to go along with the scam. (Remember, there was a breakin at the embassy--stealing their stationary.) Now they are being targeted--probably set up. (--lots of time since then to plant evidence, cook up stories).

This story smells to high heaven.

The Niger forgeries were more than likely cooked up by Michael Ladeen and other Neo-Cons at the Rome 2001 meeting attended by notorious Iranian arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar, and top Italian intel and military officials.

I think this is misdirection/disinformation.

[Emit]

14. I thought I also read sometime way back

that Adam Maiga Zakariaou's apartment was broken into, as well. I've read a lot of things about this whole story, so I could be wrong.

[wordpix2]

16. you've got a point there, PP---if the consul had forged the doc, it would

have appeared genuine and not the crude fake it was exposed as.

[seemslikeadream]

23. Italian agents gave false dossier to British and American Intel

"Italy MPs probe Niger-Iraq claim"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4402594.stm

Italy MPs probe Niger-Iraq claim

The director of the Italian military intelligence agency (Sismi) is due to give evidence over allegations that Iraq sought to buy uranium from Niger.

Nicolo Pollari is testifying before a parliamentary committee over reports that Italy wilfully gave the US and UK evidence that turned out to be false......


The Italian hearing into the claims is being held behind closed doors, but some details were expected to emerge later.

Italian newspaper La Repubblica says Italian agents gave the false dossier to British and American intelligence services........

[radio4progressives]

34. I didn't give this the careful reading you did..

and you reminded me of Ghorbanifar, Iran Contra arms dealer was directly connected to this plot with Ledeen and the forgeries.. :hi:

[RedEarth]

35. I agree...something is fishy with this...sounds like Nigerian email scam

[AntiFascist]

101. It does sound like a Nigerian money laundering scam...

where Nigerian "officials" use badly faked documents to prove their official status. But note, there is a difference between Niger and Nigeria.

[KoKo]

42. Agree...it smells. Josh Marshall and Linda Rozen did all the early

work on this for a CBS 60 Minutes Documentary. It got canned with the Rather AWOL stuff broke.

If I remember correctly it all pointed to someone involved with Berlusconni's Govt. being involved with this. Josh said recently that the story went very "deep," and more would be coming out about it. Somehow this doesn't seem to be it...unless RawStory's snip is just a teaser for what will be revealed in the full article. :shrug:

[NashVegas]

64. Talking Points Memo Agrees With You

Look closely. If this is an accurate representation of what the story will contain, it is about an Italian government investigation. That's all you need to know.

The Italian intelligence services were centrally involved in the clandestine distribution of the forgeries and in all likelihood the creation of the forgeries themselves. Everything the Italian government has done since then has been to impede any outside investigation into their role.

There's simply no reason to credit anything an Italian government investigation of this matter reveals. If anything, its findings are probably a good bet to be the exact opposite of what is a. And the timing of such a release is no doubt in response to indications that at least two US news organizations will release new, damaging revelations about their role in the not-too-distant future

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/

[KoKo]

69. I just posted this in GD Forum because I was clicking Josh's site all

afternoon. You found it before I did (cooking dinner is my excuse) but thanks for posting it here and catching it earlier. :toast:

The story is a plant to save Berlusconni's butt probably orchestrated by Blair. I don't know why "Raw Story" ran with it...but maybe they didn't know the background of it all. :shrug:

[rumpel]

67. I agree. I also immediately thought it is not right. I think this is a

plant.

The timing of events is completely off. I have to ckeck on our past threads, including the circumstances of how the Italian reporter received the information. refenrencing Sy Hersch's book here.

This story does not pass muster, and who at NATO is running this investigation?

[RaleighNCDUer]

73. That was my first thought, too.

If it was the work of embassy staff, they'd have known who the proper signitories would be for such a contract.

Were they trying to make it bad enough to not be believed? To just take the money and run? But if so, they'd expect it to come back to them. Was it worth their careers for a relatively meager payoff?

Fishy.

[EFerrari]

78. Had the same thought. nt

[Roland99]

82. Thought it seemed odd given all the signs pointing to Hadley/Ledeen/SISMI

And then this about Niger embassy employees being the ones to forge the docs? What would they stand to gain? A bit of cash?

Naaah...have to look to the people who *really* stood to gain on this: PNAC

[Postman]

15. Follow the money. Who paid them?

eom

[file83]

28. What benefits/ favors did they receive for the "job" they performed?

We must find out.

[kpete]

20. update

London paper will identify who forged Niger documents

RAW STORY
Published: Saturday April 8, 2006


The LONDON SUNDAY TIMES' Michael Smith -- who first broke the infamous Downing Street Memo -- will identify who is believed to have forged the documents that formed the basis for President George W. Bush's infamous 16 words this evening, RAW STORY has learned. Smith will explain the chain of events in painstaking detail.

According to Nato sources who spoke under condition of anonymity with the SUNDAY TIMES, an Italian investigation has fingered two employees of an embassy in Italy with forging the documents.

Speculation has been ripe over who forged the documents -- and the SUNDAY TIMES piece is unlikely to stem furor and speculation in the United States over the documents that helped bring the United States to war with Iraq.

DEVELOPING...

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/London_paper_will_identify_who_forged_0408.html

[Rose Siding]

22. Or Sismi is spinning the Times on the eve on Berlusconi's election

(Not from my brain, but Laura Rozen's) She thinks Montini got the docs from Sismi.

[Roland99]

81. How many in Italy care about this issue, though?

[cantstandbush]

26. For money? From whom? n/t

[Maraya1969]

27. Hey look who's getting the exclusives now! It ain't CBS, NBC or FOX

It's RAW STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

People are learning that the legit internet news sites won't cover something up because they are afraid or they think they should wait or for any other sissy reason like other news organizations do.

[Lithos]

70. How so?

They got what amounts to a press release from Michael Smith who tipped them off that he was publishing something in his own paper, the Sunday Times. How is this an exclusive to RawStory? It's a Sunday Times article, if anyone has an exclusive it's them.

L-

[lala_rawraw]

85. Ah no, we did not get a press release

And PRs don't go out to "one person". We got the article, full and in advance and were told we could publish excerpts of it. So yes, it was leaked only to us, prior to is actual publication.

[Lithos]

91. Okay, so it is a press release

If not in name, then in action. Sounds like confirmation Michael Smith sent the article out just prior to publication with an expectation people would republish portions of it in order to promote it for him. Copyright remains with him and the Sunday Times, so it certainly is not original to RawStory. As such there is a bit of an obligatory requirement to to point back to him and The Sunday Times which drives up his readership.

L-

[lala_rawraw]

95. Right, he needs promoting from us? Um, okay

Let me know when the mother ship arrives. You don't know anything about Smith, about what we got, what we did or did not do with it, yet astonishing that you would call this a press release. Amazing. We did not claim to own it, as the title, the references to, and the link would suggest. I am friends with Michael Smith, so please don't tell me that he sent me a press release. How pathetic that this is what you are focusing on over, um, the actual story. Again, amazing.

[muriel_volestrangler]

97. I don't see anything wrong with Smith using you for publicity in the USA

While stories in the UK papers get mentioned on TV and radio here, and their headlines are seen in shops, which will attract irregular readers in the UK, they're unlikely to get that from the US broadcast media - so Raw Story is a good way of getting new US viewers for the Sunday Times website. There's nothing wrong with basic commerce.

[FogerRox]

30. "K" for kpete and an "R" for RAWSTORY

[wookie294]

33. Americans are the most manipulated people on Earth

Remember the bogus "incubator" story from 1991? Saddam invaded Kuwait and his soldiers were throwing babies out of incubators. It tug at the heart of the manipulated American people who fell for the lie. I'm so pissed off Americans are so gullible. And here we go again with the Niger forgeries. We Americans are the biggest SUCKERS on Earth.

[karlrschneider]

37. Not sure this is really news but K&R anyway

:kick:

[flyarm]

39. BREAKING: NEO-CON LARRY FRANKLIN WILL PLEAD GUILTY Update: Niger Doc Seal!

look at whole link..its got lots of important info!!
BREAKING: NEO-CON LARRY FRANKLIN WILL PLEAD GUILTY Update: Niger Doc Seal!

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/29/194828/282

Thu Sep 29, 2005 at 04:48:28 PM PDT
This fellow worked at the DIA, and also worked directly under Wolfowitz and Feith as top Iran analyst for the Neo-Cons. He's cooperating with the FBI supposedly.

He's also associated with Michael Leeden.

Pentagon Analyst to Plead Guilty to Leak

There is a lot more to this, follow the links.

Sherlock Google's diary :: ::

snip:

Update <2005-9-29 20:30:43 by Sherlock Google>: Larry Franklin was involved in the phony Niger docs used as an excuse by the neo-cons to start the war on Iraq. At least he went to Rome to a meeting with Leeden and there they received the obvious forgeries. From the Bellacio link above:


JANUARY 2001 BREAK-IN AT NIGER EMBASSY

At night, between the first and second of the January 2001, a mysterious thief came to the embassy of Niger in Rome and into the residence of the counselor in charge. It turned out that some letterhead and seals were missing. A second dossier on Niger-Iraq trade soon came into Martino’s hands, one that included references to uranium trafficking. Martino claims he got it from embassy personnel and that he thought it was authentic.

Martino passed it on to the French secret service, who had paid for it, and also to Panorama , which assessed it by dispatching a female reporter to Niger. Panorama also turned the file over to the US Embassy in Rome for cross-checking in the US.

The female journalist soon told Martino that the trip to Niger had not produced any real confirmation, and also the French confirmed to Martino that the reports he had passed on to them were groundless. In other words, Bush’s war rationale was debunked way back in 2001 by amateur and professional sleuths.

Furthermore, it was a very amateurish forgery, not likely produced through official channels by any state intelligence agency with their vast resources. However, it was soon resuscitated as the Bush administration, in its first year, ramped up its public relations campaign for war.



snip:


ROME MEETING IN DECEMBER 2001

Michael Ledeen organized a meeting in Rome to gather evidence to support the planned war. Present were:

1. Michael Ledeen, Karl Rove’s foreign policy advisor and organizer of the meeting

2. Nicolo Pollari, head of the the Italian equivalent of the CIA, the SISMI

3. Italy’s Minister of Defense, Antonio Martino (no relation apparently to the spy Rocco Martino), Pollari’s boss

4. Larry Franklin, an American who presently is being prosecuted in the US for giving classified information to an Israeli front group, AIPC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) -- which some would call "spying," even though he has not been charged with espionage

5. Harold Rhode: member of Dick Cheney’s Office of Special Plans, protege of Ledeen, go-between with Iraqi exile and CIA asset (at the time) Ahmed Chalabi.


snip:

Ledeen already had a longstanding friendship with Francesco Pazienza, an Italian felon and forger who had been kicked out of the official Italian intelligence organization SISMI but who had found a new home in the renegade intelligence agency P-2 (Propaganda Due). Pazienza apparently was not present but definitely was known to Italian intelligence agents, including Rocco Martino, as well as to Ledeen.

Ledeen also was a personal friend of Pollari, who, like Ledeen, is a master of the card game bridge (Ledeen writes columns on it). There are close ties between Pollari’s official intelligence organization, SISMI, and Pazienza’s unnofficial one, P-2. In fact, P-2 recruits from SISMI.

[flyarm]

40. bio of larry franklin

Larry Franklin
On August 27, 2004 CBS News broke a story about an FBI investigation into a possible Israeli spy in the US Department of Defense. The story reported the FBI had uncovered an Israeli spy working as a policy analyst under Douglas Feith and Paul Wolfowitz. He was later identified as Larry Franklin, a colonel in the US Air Force Reserve, who had previously served as an attache at the US embassy in Israel and at present is one of two mid-level Pentagon officials in the Office of the Secretary of Defense responsible for Iran policy in the office's Northern Gulf directorate. <1><2>

bio here:
http://larry-franklin.biography.ms/

[flyarm]

41. info on Larry Franklin:

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/001074.html

[seemslikeadream]

43. . Larry Franklin is a BIG story and the msm is not covering it

working links here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1829810#1829922


Analyst Charged With Passing Iran Info: Franklin Turned Self InTo FBI
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Fieth resigns from Pentagon today
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Former CIA official looks to leak the truth
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
New Israeli spy probe has a 30-year history, insiders say
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Israel's Mole Inside the Pentagon
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
FBI probes Jewish sway on Bush government
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Money from Iran Fuels Iraq Insurgency -Rumsfeld
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Israeli spy nest in the U.S. - Ashcroft says: ’Don’t arrest them!’
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
FBI probes DOD office (spy probe widens)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph
p?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=784155
F.B.I said to reach official suspected of passing secrets ....
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Analyst Who Is Target of Probe Went to Israel
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Knight Ridder:FBI espionage probe goes beyond Israeli allegations
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Pentagon Analyst Was Cooperating When Israel Spy Case Became Public
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Iran-Contra II? Fresh scrutiny on rogue Pentagon operation -Josh Marshall
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
AIPAC's Overt and Covert Ops
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
UK Express: (Perle) Faces (FBI) Quiz Over Links to Israeli Spy
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Israel Says It Has No Need to Spy on U.S.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
F.B.I. Is Said to Brief Pentagon Bosses on Spy Case; Charges Are Possible
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
LAT: FBI Questions Israeli Lobbyists (AIPAC) in Spying Probe ((Gilon mentioned)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
FBI briefs Wolfowitz on Israeli spy claim
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
F.B.I. Interviews 2 Suspected of Passing Secrets to Israel
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
FBI seizes computer from AIPAC offices
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Pentagon Office in Spying Case Was Focus of Iran Debate
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Leak Probe More Than 2 Years Old (AIPAC)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
AIPAC hires lawyers
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Spy probe scans neo-cons' Israel ties (long article from Asia Times)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
FBI Informed White House of AIPAC Probe Two Years Ago
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Alleged Pentagon Leak to Iraqi Is Under Investigation
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Serving Two Flags The Bush Neo-Cons and Israel
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Israeli political advisor may have received U.S. secrets
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Wider FBI Probe Of Pentagon Leaks Includes Chalabi - WaPo
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
LAT: Israel Has Long Spied on US,Say Officials(but CIA, Mossad "intimate")
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Defense, Cheney Iran Specialists Questioned in (Israeli Spy) Probe
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Leak Inquiry Includes Iran Experts in Administration (WaPo)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
A Web Of Intrigue Inside the Israel espionage investigation
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Pro-Israel Lobby Has Strong VoiceAIPAC Is Embroiled in Investigation of Pe
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Israel's Mole Inside the Pentagon
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
FBI probes possible Pentagon leak to Iraqi exiles
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Reporters' Files Subpoenaed
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...
Secrets: Classified Info: Springing a Leak
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

see also
Franklin: I gave Israel secret material
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4981345

[twaddler01]

45. This is big

never thought some of this stuff would ever officially come out....we all knew something was going on before, but this is getting very interesting now...

[eppur_se_muova]

47. Care to launch a separate "Larry Franklin pleads guilty" thread?

This is great stuff, but more people will read it if they know someone's actually been caught, out of the whole criminal crew ...

[kitkat65]

57. Does anyone know who this female reporter was?

"Martino passed it on to the French secret service, who had paid for it, and also to Panorama , which assessed it by dispatching a female reporter to Niger."

Is Panorama an Italian news agency? Unless Italy has only one female reporter this probably means nothing, but . . .

Do you remember the female Italian reporter kidnapped in Iraq that was eventually freed (I think through discussions between the Italian gov. and the group holding her)?

After she was freed by the hostages, her car was fired upon by our forces due to, what the press was told, a miscommunication and I remember her saying that was bullshit and our military should have know it was her car since they had been told she was coming. It all sounded very fishy when it happened. One of the men in her car was shot and killed who he was an agent of what I took to be Italian equivalent of the CIA. He was hailed by the Italians as a hero because he deliberately shielded her from the incoming bullets.

I have the attention span of a gnat today, so bear with me. There's so much information in this one thread alone, much less the links . . .

On edit: Panorama is British. The Italian reporter was Giuliana Sgrena

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuliana_Sgrena

She reported about war atrocities in Fallujah

This was a useless tangient. Sorry but I did tell you about my concentration . . . not so good. today.

[Name removed]

61. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[flyarm]

86. yes i believe i do if you want her name pm me please! n/t

[twaddler01]

44. wow

wonder how much these guys got paid?

[MAX 1]

48. AUMFof 2002 Against Iraq

http://www.democrats.com/node/8420#comment-54837

Contact Congress, and tell them to Repeal the AUMF of 2002 due to the use of illegitimate evidence used to draw up The House Joint Resolution Authorization the Use of Military Force Against Iraq, Resolution of 2002 (Enrolled as Agreed to or Passed by Both House and Senate). H.J.Res.114

[Roland99]

83. Wasn't the IWR made moot in June 2004 with the handover of Sovereignty?

[seemslikeadream]

49. So now are we getting close to the TECHTONIC PLATES MOVING?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4002813




In June, Josh Marshall Talking Points

A few points before signing off, though. You may have noticed a slight down-tick in the frequency of posts of late. And that’s for a few different reasons. But a principal one is that I and several colleagues have been working on a story that, if and when it comes to fruition — and I’m confident it shall — should shuffle the tectonic plates under that capital city where I normally hang my hat. So that’s something to look forward to in the not too distant future. And that’s taken some of my time away from TPM and prevented me from sharing with you some delectable tidbits which otherwise I would have loved to have done.


I’ve spent so much time over the last several months reporting on a project that has to do with classified materials that I’m embarrassed to say that I don’t know just what the rules are for taking notes of such classified documents in secure reading rooms.

[DrDebug]

52. I'm so glad we got you :)

I'm watching this thread become more and more interesting. Sometimes it's time for a compliment :toast:

[seemslikeadream]

98. DrDebug!!!

BANDULU: bandit, criminal, one living by guile
BANDULU BIZNESS is a racket, a swindle


Obediah Obediah, Jah Jah sent us here to catch vampiyah
Obediah Obediah, Jah Jah sent us here to catch vampiyah
I have the chalice to light up Jah fiyah!
When i and i ketch them vampire
i and i a go set them a fiyah


Ya no see it, DrDebug?

More time

SLaD

[DrDebug]

99. I and i see it

Vampire, first recorded by Devon Irons, with its menacing, mantra-like chant it is in fact a type of Rasta spell, which aims to cast out evil.

Patrick Fitzgerald is getting close to them vampires. Let's cast them vampires back into the hells they came from, so the souls of New Orleans will find peace.

[KoKo]

54. Josh had a very recent update...on this...Said it goes DEEP...and more

would be coming shortly. From the snip of Raw Story...some how I don't think what the London "Times" has coming....is the "Techtonic Plates." But, who knows. This story has gone on so long and been shut down so many times (Josh and Rozens 60 Minutes Feature) that one does have to suspect it's VERY DEEP and the TIMING with Berlusconni's Election...makes me believe the article FAVORS HIM...on Election Eve...rather than causes him harm.

but..then..parsing all the crap that's going on...get's hard to do even for those of us here who have watched it and catalogued it for years, now.

:-(

[The Doctor.]

96. Thank you for all you do.

Most of us haven't the time, place, or resources to do much more than spread news around. Real digging is quite noble. And I thank you for it.

And when you're ready, there will be quite a few of us to spread it around.

[sweetheart]

51. I gotta see a forged dog.

What a genetic irony,
an animal with yellow caked fur,
lies for a fee,
niger's backhander from the K street Curr.

[Canuckistanian]

53. Bush Lied. People Died.

These are just the details.

To The Hague!

:headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

[thereismore]

55. FOR MONEY? OK, now somebody please follow the money, will you? nt

[flyarm]

56. Niger forgeries: SISMI, OSP, Ledeen, Feith, Iran-Contra - It's ALL here!

Niger forgeries: SISMI, OSP, Ledeen, Feith, Iran-Contra - It's ALL here!
Fri Jul-22-05 05:33 PM

Throw in Chalabi, JINSA, AIPAC, Larry Franklin and those 13 CIA agents ordered arrested by that Italian judge. This Kos diary has an absolutely AMAZING rundown of the connections:



http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/7/22/7563/12283

Niger Yellowcake and The Man Who Forged Too Much

They say all roads lead to Rome. Well, this one certainly does. It's a road that starts in Paris, at the door of Iranian arms dealer and Mossad double agent Manucher Ghorbanifar, a man known to the CIA as an "intelligence fabricator". It's a road that runs through Niger uranium mines, past a Genoan fascist organization operating as a parallel Italian intelligence network with ties to Rocco Martino, and down the streets of Milan, where a CIA operative, now considered a fugitive at large by Italian authorities, once operated.

Ultimately, however, it is a road that does not end in Rome. It runs past that ancient icon of Imperial corruption and leads us to Washington D.C., past a Federal Investigation into Israeli espionage and right up to the steps of the White House and Dick Cheney's Office of Special Plans.

All signs along this road point to the answer to the question: Who forged the Niger Uranium Documents?




And once you've digested all that, go read this:


http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2005/07/niger_mi...

Niger Mischief

<snip>


Among the various items brought to mind by present history is the question of the Niger Document. This was the paper which turned up in the hands of Italian intelligence which purports to establish Saddam's drive to buy semi-refined Uranium ore in Niger. This document seems to be well established as a forgery planted on the Italians. Was the US government involved? I know of nothing at this point that would demonstrate that.

The newsmedia have worked on this story for years now and several have well documented the result. A major TV news magazine hired me last year to help them look for those who knew the truth in this matter. They succeeded. A national wire service did the same thing without my help and has the result. The same is true of two other national news publications.

It is very clear now that this document was forged by a couple of the shadowy ex-government characters who dwell in the environs of Washington and was planted in Italy on the basis of the personal contacts of one of them with the intention of influencing the debate over Iraq in this country.

[flyarm]

58. if * thought he was innocent and the facts were correct and he wasn't

guilty of anything involving the fake documents and outting of Valerie Plame..why did he hire a private defence attorney????????

http://foi.missouri.edu/whistleblowing/bushconsults.html

The Freedom of Information Center
Bush Consults Lawyer in CIA Leak Case

By TERENCE HUNT
Associated Press
June 3, 2004

snip:

WASHINGTON (June 3) - President Bush said Thursday he was ready to cooperate in the grand jury investigation of who leaked the name of a covert CIA operative last year and that he had consulted with an attorney to determine if he needs legal advice.

''I've told our administration that we'll fully cooperate with their investigation'' Bush said. ''I want to know the truth. I'm willing to cooperate myself.''

snip:

Earlier, Bush's chief spokesman, Scott McClelland, confirmed that Bush had contacted Washington attorney Jim Sharp. ''In the event the president needs his advice, I expect he probably would retain him,'' McClellan said. There is no indication Bush has been questioned yet.


snip:
Democrats seized on the news to criticize the president.
''It speaks for itself that the president initially claimed he wanted to get to the bottom of this, but now he's suddenly retained a lawyer,'' said Jano Cabrera, spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. ''Bush shouldn't drag the country through grand juries and legal maneuvering. President Bush should come forward with what he knows and come clean with the American people.''

[flyarm]

60. Nigergate: The Italian Connection - New Info. Nov 14, 2005

ok i have so much on this in my files..i am going to just post alot of what i have for people to read through..we all need a refresher..at least i know i do..

fly


http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/11/14/20386/819

Nigergate: The Italian Connection - New Info.
by Doctor Who
Mon Nov 14, 2005 at 06:38:06 PM PDT

snip:
Now comes the story from La Repubblica that on the second attempt to pass off the forgeries as authentic, the Italians - or someone - corrected the errors in their transcription of the original documents, and that's what made its way to policymakers. So what happened to the original forgeries? A partial answer is on pages 58-59 of the SSCI report <.pdf>:

"On October 16, 2002, INR made copies of the documents available at the NIAG meeting for attendees, including representatives from the CIA, DIA, DOE and NSA. Because the analyst who offered to provide the documents was on leave, the office's senior analyst provided the documents. She cannot reveal how she made the documents available, but analysts from several agencies, including the DIA, NSA and DOE, did pick up copies at that meeting. None of the four CIA representatives recall picking up the documents, however, during the CIA Inspector General's investigation of this issue, copies of the documents were found in the DO's CPD vault. It appears that a CPD representative did pick up the documents at the NIAG meeting, but after returning to the office, filed them without any further distribution.

"The CIA told the Committee its analysts did not seek to obtain copies of the documents because they believed that the foreign government service reporting was verbatim text and did not think it would advance the story on the alleged uranium deal. One analyst noted that, at the time, the CIA was preparing its case on reconstitution and since the uranium reporting was not significant to their argument, getting the documents was not a priority."

The U.S., prior to the surfacing of the forgeries themselves, had only been seeing reports filtered via Italian intelligence. When the forgeries themselves turned up, they were locked away at Langley. The Americans were being spoon-fed transcriptions - forgeries of a forgery! - via their Rome-to-Washington conduit, which, according to La Repubblica and my own sources, was Michael Ledeen and the Office of Special Plans. But there was something awfully suspicious about these transcriptions, as The Left Coaster - who has been all over this story - points out, indicating that

[Name removed]

62. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ramblin_dave]

63. Josh Marshall: Italian government investigation suspect

Read his latest update:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/008172.php

He cautions against taking this story at face value, but says this may be an effort to blunt new damaging revelations that are coming soon.

[Jara sang]

65. It's Nigerien, not Nigerian.

A person from Niger is a Nigerien.

[muriel_volestrangler]

66. Michael Smith's blog, and the Sunday Times story

Part 1:

I said earlier that I have always been amazed at the controversy over the actual claim, but it is very easy to understand why the affair as a whole became so controversial. The first reason had its genesis in Italy in February 2000 - almost a year before Bush came to power - and was directly caused by DGSE operation to ensure that Saddam Hussein could not obtain uranium from Niger.

Antonio Nucera, an officer in the Italian intelligence service SISMI, thought he could help out a couple of former agents. One was a former policeman turned freelance spy called Rocco Martino. The other was a woman called Laura Montini, who was the personal assistant to the Niger Ambassador in Rome and had supplied Nucera with Niger’s diplomatic ciphers and a number of documents. But when Nucera was moved to another job Montini had been dropped as a source. She needed the money from spying to supplement her salary. Nucera knew Martino was still in the business. He offered to introduce them. What he didn’t know was that Martino was now working for the DGSE and being run out of its station in Brussels.

He was looking for more sources and Montini fitted the bill. She supplied the goods and Martino was authorised to pay her 500 Euros a month for her work. Then in the spring of 2000 she gave him a genuine document concerning a visit to Niger by Wissam Zahawie, Iraqi ambassador to the Vatican. Martino’s DGSE paymasters expressed great interest and he told her how much more money his masters would pay for a copy of a Nigerien contract to sell uranium to Iraq. It was a classic mistake. If you offer enough money for a given piece of intelligence there will always be someone who will “find” it.

Mondini and a colleague forged the documents, giving them to Martino in October 2000. But when he took them to the DGSE, they rejected the documents as fake. He then tried to sell them to an Italian journalist, who strangely took them to the US embassy to get them authenticated. Not unnaturally the US embassy sent them to Washington where they were ignored by the CIA but used by the State Department for a fact sheet they were preparing on the Iraqi declaration to the UN on its WMD programmes. The fact sheet was published on December 19, 2002 and the IAEA swiftly asked to see the evidence that led to its claim that Iraq’s declaration “ignores efforts to procure uranium from Niger”.

http://timesonline.typepad.com/mick_smith/2006/04/nigergate_i_the.html

Part 2:

Nigergate II: The Strange Case of the Burglar Who Didn’t Want Money

The revelations in today’s Sunday Times that two employees of the Niger embassy in Rome forged documents apparently proving Niger was selling uranium to Iraq are unlikely to end the conspiracy theories that swirl around the Niger Affair, and not just because the investigation into the Plamegate affair will run and run. There are still a number of minor mysteries that require further investigation, particularly two burglaries in Rome, one at the Niger embassy over the 2001 New Year’s holiday and one at the home of the Niger consul on January 31, 2001. Both break-ins baffled the Italian police, not least because the burglar didn’t seem to be interested in taking any money.

Then there is the fact that some of the alleged Martino documents published in the Italian press appear to be different in a number of respects to the ones that were passed to the US embassy in Rome and eventually to the International Atomic Energy Authority which denounced them as fakes. How could this be? It makes you wonder whether, with the intelligence market drying up for the freelance peddlers of information, they have found an alternative market among elements of the Italian press.

But there might be something more sinister at work. Certainly the Italian authorities appear to think so, briefing darkly to their relatively few friends in the Italian press that the French are deliberately muddying the waters, implicating Italian intelligence officers in the affair to draw attention away from the fact that it was their agent, Rocco Martino, who put the documents into circulation in the first place. Martino was a French spy, run by the French secret service station in Brussels and paid a retainer of between 1,500 and 2,000 Euros a month for his services. If any intelligence service was responsible for the appearance of the forged Niger documents, so the argument goes, it was the French intelligence service, the DGSE.

I have always found the “blame the French argument” suspicious. It has been put to me on a number of occasions and I have never used it, or indeed believed it. Certainly the break-ins took place long before any of the controversy over Iraqi WMD. Bush was barely in office in January 2001. But my research into the Niger affair has uncovered a number of strange facts that suggest there may be more to the French involvement in the affair than I previously believed. An investigation of the various documents that appeared in the Italian press has apparently found that a number of them were faxed from French fax numbers, others were tracked in emails sent via a French server.

http://timesonline.typepad.com/mick_smith/2006/04/nigergate_ii_th.html

And link to the story in the paper:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2125630.html

[kitkat65]

68. Okay, so given the outing of Plame, which is related, is this the REAL

cover up? The real cover up being that someone in our government bought and paid for these forgeries to use as justification for war?

Would this action be the ONLY tangible thing that could hang them?

Given everything we've learned which include:

• The Downing Street memos plus the most recent memos that show an obvious intent toward war despite public announcements stating the opposite

• The cherry picking of intelligence

• The PNAC and it's stated goals

Given all this stuff which has us saying WTF? could this forgery thing be the ONE thing that, if a connection to the White House is proved, brings the house of cards down?

I guess what I'm trying to ask is, is this different than everything else because it's the perpetuation of fraud and therefore more damning than everything else? Is this because everything else can be explained away (via PR a good defense lawyer) by either semantics, failed policy, poor intelligence, ideology, whatever? From a legal standpoint, is this it?

And, if the forgery is the one thing, just how screwed are they? Are they eligible for charges of treason or the Hague?

[Harper_is_Bush]

72. HEY EVERYONE, DON'T LOOK AT THE LEAK! LOOK AT THIS!!!

IT WASN'T OUR FAULT!!

:puke:

[kpete]

74. FULL ARTICLE NOW AVAILABLE

The Sunday Times April 09, 2006

'Forgers' of key Iraq war contract named
Michael Smith

TWO employees of the Niger embassy in Rome were responsible for the forgery of a notorious set of documents used to help justify the Iraq war, an official investigation has allegedly found.

According to Nato sources, the investigation has evidence that Niger’s consul and its ambassador’s personal assistant faked a contract to show Saddam Hussein had bought uranium ore from the impoverished west African country.

The documents, which emerged in 2002, were used in a US State Department fact sheet on Iraq’s weapons programme to build the case for war. They were denounced as forgeries by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) shortly before the 2003 invasion.

The revelation spawned a series of conspiracy theories, most alleging that the British, Italians, or even Dick Cheney, the American vice-president, had had a hand in forging them to back the case for war.

The story was still reverberating around Washington last week with claims that President George W Bush had authorised the leaking of the identity of a CIA agent whose husband cast doubt on the Niger link.

According to the sources, an official investigation believes Adam Maiga Zakariaou, the consul, and Laura Montini, the ambassador’s assistant, known as La Signora, forged the papers for money.

LOTS more at:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-2125630,00.html

[symbolman]

88. So why did they break into the Niger Embassy in 2000

about Jan or so? THAT is when the papers were stolen, also a few watches and some perfume, but that was for show, for what the thieves had in mind was to steal the NIGER Papers with the official seal so that the papers COULD be forged.

This doesn't smell right, and believe me, I've done my homework, spent a year researching all this, even made a film about it called "ROVE'S WAR" (at http://www.takebackthemedia.com) Takebackthemedia where I NAILED them all on this..

Here's the link to my scoop in the film showing all of the members involved in the 2001 Meeting in Rome, a film that's been in circulation and watched by many members of the DU for at least 5 months now. Just ask H2OMAN, he ordered multiple copies and gave it a rave review..

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x885594

What's being said here doesn't make any sense, tho I'm tempted to learn more, as I trust and repect the timesonline..

Thanks for posting this KPETE.

[lovuian]

76. Wait a minute... whats missing in this is the INCOMPETENCE

or DELIBERATE... inability of our Great and wonderous technological fantastic NSA State Department and CIA to tell that these were forgeries...


That really is the whole question was it intentionally missed???

[npincus]

77. Follow the money

how did this "unspecified organisation" transfer the money- by wire, by check? Follow the money...

"Martino told me that if he was able to obtain a copy of a contract then he would have earned a lot of money from an unspecified 'intelligence' organisation," she told the magistrate

[rumpel]

79. Rocco Martino & Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino

It says: two former SISMI agents in 2000 - one works for the French and one works for the Niger embassy. hmmmm....
SISMI (Nucera) arranges a meeting. Nucera introduces Laura Montini to Rocco Martino. For what?

The French control all aspects of the Niger uranium import/export, if Rocco Martino is really a French agent, of course he would be interested in any Iraq contracts, should they exist, as the French would be blamed for any problems arising from any smuggling to the UN sanctioned Iraq.
However Nucera claims he = SISMI did not know that Rocco was an agent for the French.

It also says: In the autumn of 2002, Martino passed the documents allegedly faked by Zakariaou and Montini to an Italian journalist. She then took them to the American embassy and they were passed on to Washington.

However, the reporter was told, by her editor in chief, who has close ties to Berlusconi, to take it to the US embassy, whereas she wanted to vet the documents.

Fast forward to 2002 - a refresher of previous article reference:

Authors Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe d'Avanzo describe how SISMI, the Italian intelligence agency, was a party to faking the documents. Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi was keen to put SISMI at America's disposal in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and SISMI's chief, Nicolo Pollari, was eager to make himself – and Italy – indispensable to the warlords of Washington. Pollari's initial attempts to pass off the Niger uranium forgeries as authentic evidence of Iraq's nuclear ambitions did not, however, meet with success. Whereupon Pollari took advantage of the developing split between the State Department-CIA professionals, who tended to be skeptical, and the Cheney-Pentagon-neocon ideologues, who were looking for any evidence – however dubious –of Iraq's WMD, and the Italians developed a strategy to legitimize the forgeries in the eyes of the White House.

The Italian strategy was to enter the factional conflict on the side of the Cheney-ites. As a liaison to those circles, Defense Minister Antonio Martino recommended "an old friend of Italy," one Michael Ledeen – neoconservative ideologue and veteran of "parallel intelligence" work from his days as broker of the Iran-Contra "arms for hostages" deal. Just as Ledeen acted as the middleman in effecting the transfer of Israeli arms to Iran in exchange for the hostages, so he apparently played a similar role as a go-between in Niger-gate. Using Ledeen as their Washington intermediary, the Italians succeeded in circumventing the CIA and getting the unvetted forgeries to the White House via the good offices of both Condoleezza Rice and the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans.

La Repubblica also reports that Pollari traveled all the way to Washington to sell these tainted goods, and, on Sept. 9, 2002, met in secret with then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.

more at:
http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=7776

Does this make sense? Unless it is far more sinister than we thought, and the neo-cons on both sides of the ocean already prepped the stage for war in 2000.

I am getting a brain freeze on this one...

[WiseButAngrySara]

84. See Post #66 above; My brain is frozen too!

"The first reason had its genesis in Italy in February 2000 - almost a year before Bush came to power - and was directly caused by DGSE operation to ensure that Saddam Hussein could not obtain uranium from Niger."

[Old and In the Way]

87. I think that is exactly it.

They started the wheels turning on manufacturing the evidence as soon as they stole the election. It was a done deal. We've seen the PNAC plan. They were all in on it. A lot of money to be made and oil to be taken. I'd bet that the plan was to do the IWR just before the mid-terms, too.

I think we know that Ledeen, Franklin, and Rhode are the key players here. They used intermediaries to get the forgeries done. It looks to me like they are trying to assign blame to some dupes in the Niger mission, but I think it is pretty weak. Why? If they did it, it was for $ and it was on someone else's behalf. Who needed the evidence? Bush-Cheney. The fact that they used it AFTER it was already suspect tells me that they were desperate to maintain it as justification. Remember, the aluminum tubes "evidence" was also in dispute....so it was becoming a lot harder to justify the WMD justification when UN inspectors weren't finding any and the evidence that they were using was starting to unravel.

I think we are starting to see why it was so important to discredit Wilson. I really thought the ultimate backstory was that they wanted to out Plame, but now I think they were trying to kill the whole Niger yellowcake story because the "evidence" would lead back to themselves. That sort of changes the whole dynamic of the run up to the war. Not only were they lying about the evidence, but they made the evidence up.

BTW, I think the DUers who have been researching and tracking this story have done an outstanding job.

[donkeyotay]

100. The wheels are coming off

I really thought the ultimate backstory was that they wanted to out Plame, but now I think they were trying to kill the whole Niger yellowcake story because the "evidence" would lead back to themselves. That sort of changes the whole dynamic of the run up to the war. Not only were they lying about the evidence, but they made the evidence up.

One of the best one-stop references on the lies told for war is W. Patrick Lang's "Drinking the Kool-aid."

He tells us that,

Text"The issue of the Niger yellowcake uranium precursor had been a point of controversy since late 2001, when the Italian secret service, SISMI, reported to their American, British and Israeli counterparts that they had obtained documents...The yellowcake lead had been reported to the vice president by his CIA daily-briefing officer, and Cheney had tasked the CIA to dig deeper...The story proved to be a hoax. In February 2002, the CIA dispatched former Ambassador Joseph Wilson..."

"CIA Director Tenet personally intervened to remove references to the discredited African uranium story from President Bush's early October 2002 speech in Cincinnati, Ohio"

"bogus yellowcake information appeared in the December 19, 2002, State Department "fact sheet."

So how did the misinformation get back in? Earlier in the article he touches on another related subject:

"Sometime in January 2001, the Iraqi National Congress (INC), the opposition group headed by Ahmed Chalabi began receiving U.S. State Department funds"...
<END>

If we connect the neocon dots, what we have is a pattern of deliberate deceit that begins not only well before the lead-up to the war, but before 9-11.

These turkeys are going down. They can't hide the truth from growing numbers of people forever. Their only hope is a major distraction.

[kpete]

80. Sunday WaPo

A 'Concerted Effort' to Discredit Bush Critic
Prosecutor Describes Cheney, Libby as Key Voices Pitching Iraq-Niger Story

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/08/AR2006040800916_pf.html

[dipsydoodle]

90. Superficially this reminds me of a Millls Bros song

everyone seems to be discussing nothing in particular quite apart from arguing amongst yourselves.

There's a song which goes :

Oh I heard,yes I heard
although it wasn't told to me , I only heard

Well he said that she said
that she didn't where she got it...........

If you want the background why not just ask the guy at the Sunday Times ? As far as I'm aware they have no bias in this subject and I really don't believe the story to be malicious. I can't be bothered to go out and buy a copy but it's hardly likely to be front page news at this stage in the game.

[rumpel]

93. It is still important in the overall case since this implies either

evidence of a cover-up attempt
(It is also conceivable that Bolton does not like the former consul, who is at the UN now, and that is how they picked him) :shrug:

or shows that this band of crooked leaders moved according to plan: pre-meditation and deception towards a hostile take over of the Middle East at all cost.
To me this sounds like undefensible treason.

Either way, they fabricated evidence & engaged in an illegal war.

The problem with lies is that you have to pile up on the lies to back-up the lie, eventually the whole thing crumbles as it gets more evident with each added lie.


:evilgrin:

[dipsydoodle]

94. You may have misinterpreted

What I wrote. I agree entirely with what you say.

[AntiFascist]

103. Isn't the Sunday Times owned by Rupert Murdoch? n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

92. Then why did the documents cite Nigerian officeholders long AFTER they

left office? And the LANGUAGE was very crude too, obviously not that of a native speaker. And then too, there was the BREAK-IN at the embassy, quite possibly to steal letterhead and other materials and information for the documents.

I don't believe that native Nigerians were responsible for those documents - they would have done a much better job of forgery. To me, this sounds very much like a cover story put together and planted to protect others closer to the Bush Administration. (Of course I don't mean to accuse Raw Story. I do question the ultimate source of the story because it is so very convenient to the Bushies to deflect the blame for the forgeries.)