Posted on 09/24/2004 12:03:03 AM PDT by bstein80
Agent Behind Fake Uranium Documents Worked for France
By Bruce Johnston
The Telegraph (UK) September 19, 2004
The Italian businessman at the centre of a furious row between France and Italy over whose intelligence service was to blame for bogus documents suggesting Saddam Hussein was seeking to buy material for nuclear bombs has admitted that he was in the pay of France.
The man, identified by an Italian news agency as Rocco Martino, was the subject of a Telegraph article earlier this month in which he was referred to by his intelligence codename, "Giacomo".
His admission to investigating magistrates in Rome on Friday apparently confirms suggestions that - by commissioning "Giacomo" to procure and circulate documents - France was responsible for some of the information later used by Britain and the United States to promote the case for war with Iraq.
Italian diplomats have claimed that, by disseminating bogus documents stating that Iraq was trying to buy low-grade "yellowcake" uranium from Niger, France was trying to "set up" Britain and America in the hope that when the mistake was revealed it would undermine the case for war, which it wanted to prevent.
Italian judicial officials confirmed yesterday that Mr Martino had previously been sought for questioning by Rome. Investigating magistrates in the city have opened an inquiry into claims he made previously in the international press that Italy's secret services had been behind the dissemination of false documents, to bolster the US case for war.
According to Ansa, the Italian news agency, which said privately that it had obtained its information from "judicial and other sources", Mr Martino was questioned by an investigating magistrate, Franco Ionta, for two hours. Ansa said Mr Martino told the magistrate that Italy's military intelligence, Sismi, had no role in the procuring or dissemination of the Niger documents.
He was also said to have claimed that he had obtained the documents from an employee at the Niger embassy in Rome, before passing these to French intelligence, on whose payroll he had been since at least 2000.
However, he reportedly also added that he had believed that the documents in question were genuine, and to have never suspected that they had been forged. "Martino has clarified his position and offered to deliver to the magistrates the documents which confirm his declarations," his lawyer, Giuseppe Placidi, told Ansa.
It was not possible to contact Mr Martino through his lawyer yesterday. Contacted by The Telegraph, Mr Ionta politely declined to comment, but did not deny that the questioning had taken place. The Interior Ministry in Rome, which had also expressed keen interest in the Telegraph article, refused to comment on the matter.
Mr Martino is said by diplomats to have come forward of his own accord and contacted authorities in the Italian capital following the earlier article in the Telegraph. They said he had written a letter of resignation to the French DGSE intelligence service last week.
According to an Italian newspaper report yesterday, members of the Digos, Italy's anti-terrorist police, removed documents from Mr Martino's home in a northern suburb of Rome on Friday afternoon.
"After being exposed in the international press, French intelligence can hardly be amused or happy with him," one western diplomat said. "Martino may have thought the safest thing was to hand himself over to the Italians." Investigators in Rome suspect that Mr Martino was first engaged by the French secret services five years ago, when he was asked to investigate rumours of illicit trafficking in uranium from Niger. He is thought to have then been retained the following year to collect more information. It was then that he is suspected of having assembled a dossier containing both real and bogus documents from Niger, the latter apparently forged by a diplomat.
In September 2002 Tony Blair accused Saddam of seeking "significant quantities" of uranium from an undisclosed African country - in fact, Niger. US President George W Bush made a similar claim in his State of the Union address to Congress four months later, using information supplied by MI6.
The International Atomic Energy Agency expressed doubts over some of the documents' authenticity, however, and declared them false in March 2003.
In July, the White House withdrew the president's claim, admitting that it was based on inaccurate information. British officials still say that their intelligence about Iraqi uranium purchases was supported by a second, independent source.
What would France's motive be? With their involvement with Sadam and the oil for food bribes, why would they want to encourage us to take him out by giving us this excuse?
This does not make sense. This news item sounds like the setup to me...
OK, Kerry--how do you expect to get your buds to help in Iraq when they tried to screw us this way?
The setup made our claims look like lies.
That was France's motive. They had huge oil contracts with the UN scandal for food program.
bttt
"Italian diplomats have claimed that, by disseminating bogus documents stating that Iraq was trying to buy low-grade "yellowcake" uranium from Niger, France was trying to "set up" Britain and America in the hope that when the mistake was revealed it would undermine the case for war, which it wanted to prevent."
"Operator: We get signal"
"Captain: Qu'est que c'est?"
"Operator: Main screen turn on"
"Captain: C'est vous!!"
"Cats: How are you gentlemen!!"
"Captain: Qu'est que vous dire!!"
"Cats: All your brie are belong to us"
"Cats: You are on the way to windsurf off Nantucket!"
"Italian diplomats have claimed that, by disseminating bogus documents stating that Iraq was trying to buy low-grade "yellowcake" uranium from Niger, France was trying to "set up" Britain and America in the hope that when the mistake was revealed it would undermine the case for war, which it wanted to prevent."
Then why didn't they expose it prior to us going in? One would think that if it was a setup for the purpose stated, there would be an absolute trigger to expose it before it undermined their whole purpose - which it did.
Investigators in Rome suspect that Mr Martino was first engaged by the French secret services five years ago, when he was asked to investigate rumors of illicit trafficking in uranium from Niger. He is thought to have then been retained the following year to collect more information. It was then that he is suspected of having assembled a dossier containing both real and bogus documents from Niger, the latter apparently forged by a diplomat.
The French hired Martino to investigate the possible sale of Niger uranium to Iraq. Then when Bush threatens to topple Saddam, the French freak out and not only need to hide the intelligence Martino uncovered, they need to discredit it. To accomplish this they have these documents forged and have them delivered to Martino. Who gives them to Martino? A diplomat from Niger. Who visited Niger on a super secret mission about the same time? It was our friend Joe Wilson. And who did Joe Wilson say he saw in Niger? He talked to former Niger government officials. How was the forged document discovered to be a fake? It was signed by former Niger government officials who were now out of the government.
I know it's speculation, but I think Wilson was the one who arranged for the production of the forged documents.
Whether Wilson was involved or not, the French are still guilty of treachery. We cannot trust them anymore as allies and we should publically state as much. I would go as far as expelling a large numbers of French diplomats and threaten to cut off diplomatic ties with France to make the point.
One more thing. The Kerry/DNC mantra the last year is that Bush lied. They base this calm on the famous 16 words in the SOTU address. Of course all Freepers in good standing know that the President only referred to the British intelligence regarding the Niger/Iraq connection and did not state it as a fact or did he rely on the forged document Martino was given. The Brits still stand by their intelligence in this matter. With this revelation that the French were behind the forgery, the whole basis for the Bush lied spin is demolished.
Ah! I see your point now and it's a very good question and it's open to all sorts of speculation.
Perhaps there was some failure in the "trigger" like someone's palm not getting greased properly or soon enough and events overtook any attempt to set it off. (Follow the money.)
Another scenario: Perhaps someone got cold feet about revealing the documents as fakes before the invasion because they realized that the US and the coalition were going to go regardless (yellowcake being only one of several items of WMD concern) and that revealing them as fakes afterward would undermine the coalition's credibility, even if only temporarily, and that would have some usefulness. (However, even though they wanted the documents revealed as fakes, I'm sure they didn't want them traced back to France...chalk it up to poor execution of the plan.)
Do I believe any of these scenarios? I don't know, but it sure is fun to speculate even if I'm still fully clothed and I'm about to go put on my pajamas!
Cheers!
Tres amusant mon amis.
My tailor is rich;
My wife is rich;
My butler is my only friend
They probably were going to Blackmail, ole Saddamn for some more money etc. those French are so FRENCH.
Sounds like they were working with CBS and the Kerry campaign.
This doesn't surprise me one bit. They are not an ally, and cannot be trusted. France sucks the big one!!
Isn't this a great place to discuss politics and world events? I can't count the number of times I have put my foot in my mouth, only to have someone reveal an obvious oversight on my part that has caused me to reverse my position.
Maybe Dan Rather should have vetted his story here first...
Not much gets by Freepers - and if there are no absolutes - there are great debates.
If memory serves me, don't the French control/own the uranium mines in Niger? Seems like this fraud was a walk in the park if I remember correctly.
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