Posted on 08/09/2004 7:30:10 AM PDT by Pikamax
French Probe Led to 'Fake Niger Uranium Papers' By Mark Huband Financial Times August 2, 2004
A French intelligence operation to safeguard Niger's uranium industry and prevent weapons proliferation, inadvertently led to the forging of documents relating to an apparent clandestine uranium trade with Iraq, western intelligence officials say.
The operation, begun in 1999, reflected concern among several intelligence services that rogue states may have been trying to procure uranium. France was also concerned about the security of its own uranium supplies from Niger, as well as the security of the two French companies that control Niger's uranium industry. Rocco Martino, an Italian businessman who has admitted that he has made a career out of "selling information", has held regular meetings with French intelligence officials in Brussels since at least 1999.
According to senior European officials, in 1999 he provided French officials with genuine documents which revealed Iraq may have been planning to expand "trade" with Niger. This trade was assumed to be in uranium, which is Niger's main export. It was then that Mr Martino first became aware of the value of documents relating to Niger's uranium exports. He was then asked by French officials to provide more information, which led to a flourishing "market" in documents.
He subsequently provided France with more documents, which turned out to have been forged when they were handed to the International Atomic Energy Agency by US diplomats. The exposure of the forgeries appeared to undermine British government claims that Iraq had sought to buy uranium from Niger. US officials have distanced themselves from the claim, though the UK has insisted the forged documents were not part of their evidence. According to senior intelligence officials, the forged documents were produced with the involvement of people familiar with Niger, and were created in 2000.
French officials have not said whether they know Mr Martino, and are unlikely to either confirm or deny that he is a source. According to the Sunday Times, which interviewed him under his pseudonym of Giacomo, Mr Martino said the Italian foreign intelligence service, the SISMI, had forged the documents and had arranged for them to be passed to him by an official of Niger's embassy in Rome. Mr Martino, who has not returned telephone calls since first contacted by the Financial Times a month ago, has retained personal contacts with some serving and retired officers in the SISMI since he briefly served in the intelligence services in the 1970s.
The Italian government yesterday strongly denied it had played any role in the forging of the documents or their dissemination, saying the accusations are "completely false". Its statement also implied Mr Martino's claim to the Sunday Times that the documents were forged to justify the decision to invade Iraq is highly dubious as the market in documents - real or forged - was established several years before the war was discussed.
Intelligence experts also say that if the documents had been forged by a national intelligence service the quality would have been better and there would not have been discrepancies in them that led to them being exposed by the IAEA as fake.
One western intelligence official said: "This issue shows how vulnerable intelligence services and the media are to tricksters like Martino. He responded to a legitimate . . demand from the French, who needed the information on Niger. And now he is responding to a new demand in the market, which is being dictated by the political importance this issue has in the US. He is shaping his story to that demand."
The conclusion of this article stresses out the absolute necessity for close cooperation between Western intelligence services. There's room for team players only, nowadays.
So the original documents were real. French intel was paying money for more documents so their informant went out and created some more for sale.
We had been told that the documents came to us from Italian intel, but it seems that while some Italian spook forged them, it was French intel that passed them to us.
And we know that it was a French member of the IAEA that exposed them as false, as fact that may or may not mean anything.
But while French intel passed the forged documents to us, during the scandal that resulted they declined to mention that they were in possession of real documents verifying Bush's charges. Not that the charges really needed any backup, since Iraq's efforts were confirmed by the IAEA.
But its interesting to note that, first, the charges were true, and second, that the French put Bush in the position of embarrassment, and remained quiet as he was savaged for affirming what they knew to be true.
Excellent summation. I will continue to boycott all things French and mourn my two uncles who died liberating them.
Didn't Joe Wilson claim he proved the documents were forgeries???
Thanks; this confirms the suspicion of French involvement which has been voiced before.
"Didn't Joe Wilson claim he proved the documents were forgeries???
Did he?
I have seen where the IAEA named a member of its staff as having identified them as forgeries. The name of the guy escapes me for the moment, but he is a Frenchman. I'm not sure his nationality is relevant, but its good to keep in the back of your head considering the rest of it.
What is important is that the French commissioned the creation of these forged documents, and that despite supposedly being forged by Italian intel, they were obvious fakes that were easily exposed by anyone with access to Google, as someone said.
Since any good intel agency has access to Google, you have to wonder if they weren't designed to be obvious fakes. Any good intel agency should be able to get the dates and signatures right. That they didn't smells of a setup. That they gave these documents to Bush while withholding the real documents spells out "setup" in neon.
If you can find the link where Wilson claims to have exposed the docs please forward it. I'll look for the Frenchman's name.
The Senate Intel report itself discusses Wilson's claims to have disproved the forgeries. This was previously reported by Kristof in the NY Times and Pincus in the Washington Post. Also in the Guardian.
1. It believably establishes the provenance of the forgeries.
2. It further confirms Iraq's ongoing efforts to secure yellowcake.
3. It contributes to the notion of French duplicity.
4. It makes Joe Wilson look like an even bigger fool (Recall the words of his wife's reference about his "good relations with the French").
Well worth a cold Shiner Bock, I should think...
"A French intelligence operation to safeguard Niger's uranium industry and prevent weapons proliferation, inadvertently led to the forging of documents relating to an apparent clandestine uranium trade with Iraq, western intelligence officials say."
Got to love this usage of "western" intelligence. Who is the "WEST".
Maybe we can now put old Joe out to pasture, there is a French connection after all and who is their candidate of choice in the Western election?
Oh, hey, I found it, in your fisking of Wilson's letter.
"His deputy, Jacques Baute [IAEA], was even more direct, pointing out that the forgeries were so obvious that a quick Google search would have exposed their flaws. "
Or two. Or three. Or...
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