Posted on 10/29/2005 2:15:15 PM PDT by parnasokan
According to the New York Times the F.B.I. inquiry into the origins of the forged Niger documents have “yielded some intriguing but unproved theories”. A counterespionage official stated that the forgeries are “being investigated as a counterintelligence case, not a criminal one”. This can only mean one thing: there is more behind Nigergate than meets the eye.
When the report reaches Mueller’s desk and the investigation is closed at long last all of the facts will be there for all to see. At that point somebody will be asked to make an inventory of all the damage caused by the Nigergate affair. Unfortunately it will be too late to repair most of the damage caused by the plot.
Part of the fallout from Nigergate is already under repair, next week the Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, will meet with President George Bush to discuss, amongst other things, how their strong and exemplary alliance has been put to the toughest of tests. The “B&B” alliance continues to suffer at the hands of another alliance, the one between deviated elements of the American media and militant elements of the Italian press. Two alliances, one forged according to the principals of loyalty and collaboration, the other, the journalistic cabal, formed in accordance to a perceived necessity to overthrow legitimately elected leaders and wreck havoc inside administrations voted into power by majorities on both sides of the Atlantic. That both leaders have made mistakes is without doubt, that both administrations can be criticised is, again, without doubt. What, however, should send shockwaves throughout Italy and the United States is the fact that for the first time in history an alliance has been created between deviants and militants belonging to the media. A convergence of interests spanning mainstream media, independant media, freelance journalists and supported by not only a network of accomplices but power and interest groups.
Throughout this week Italy’s Government and Military Intelligence Service have been accused by Italy’s most influential newspaper of being the authors of the Nigergate affair. The accusations have been circulated throughout America by a network of contacts working in the press and television. The level of coordination and realtime collaboration is, in itself, a case study in strategy and efficiency. The attentive observer might wonder where this form of collaboration might lead to next. The attentive observer would do well to do exactly this.
To better understand the scandal and how the Niger documents and underhand manouvers were used against Italy, and in particular against the Italian Military Intelligence Service (SISMI), an article that appeared in the Saturday 29 October 2005 edition of Il Riformista makes interesting reading.
According to Il Riformista the meeting to be held in a few days time between Berlusconi and Bush will focus on a numbers of issues but, however embarassing, will have to address the Nigergate issue.
“The Berlusconi-Bush meeting
Who needs to help who? This is the question behind next Monday’s meeting at the White House between Silvio Berlusconi and George W. Bush. B&B the solid couple who have changed Italy’s foreign policy, the iron pact that has accompanied these last four years risks becoming the fable of the deaf man that has to indicate the way to a blind man. Both the American President and the Italian Prime Minister find themselves in a difficult position. Over and above domestic issues both men find themselves deep inside the Nigergate mess”
Quite. I’m not sure what the deaf/blind man bit means but both leaders are certainly deep inside the Nigergate mess. Who put them there? Who put them there was, as we now know, the convergence between deviant spies and deviant journalists. What are they going to do about it? Il Riformista, as far as Silvio Berlusconi is concerned, makes the following observation:
“Berlusconi should ask Bush to shed some light on the affair. It would be in the Presidents best interests to shake off the doubts that have begun to weigh down relations between the United States and Italy, amongst which the Calipari incident can be counted. There were no arms of mass destruction in Iraq. Nigergate was a fraud, the CIA pointed this out. Bush can’t illude himself that the case can be closed easily.
The voice on the grapevine that attributes the origins of the forged documents, supplied to the CIA and hence to the US administration has crossed the Atlantic ............”
It’s crossed the Atlantic indeed, the false accusations that SISMI are behind the forged documents can be found throught the American media.
As regards the accusations that the head of SISMI held secret meetings with the National Security Council there is no truth behind them at all. Nor, for that matter, is there any cause or excuse to continue spreading the lie. Both the Italian Government and the National Security Council have made official statements categorically denying the lies printed by La Repubblica and copied, discussed and propogated by certain elements of the American media.
Just as the SISMI/NSC “secret meeting” lies were debunked many of the other false accusations and claims have no reason to persist. A series of official enquiries on both sides of the Atlantic categoricalyl exclused the Italian Military Intelligence Service (SISMI) from any form or fashion of responsability months ago. So why do they persist? They persist because they fit a deviant agenda and, if the truth be told, in addition to this for a number of journalists repeating lies is much easier than actually working. The exercising of professional standards and practises, like checking your facts and sources, is obviously far too much like hard work.
Rocco Martino, the man who turned up the false documents, is an ex member of the Italian Intelligence Services. Perfectly true but as Rocco told the investigating magistrate “at the time of handing over the documents I was working for the French D.G.S.E.” When asked who he handed the documents to Rocco replied “exclusively to my employers, the French”. Asked if he was sure that he had never given copies to any other intelligence service Rocco stated that the answer was categorically “no”. So much for the accusatons of Rocco having supplied copies of the documents to the Italian SISMI and the British MI6. At this point Rocco Martino the spy turned fraudster can exit the scene. With Rocco having exited stage left one question remains, when the scandal broke why were his employers, the French D.G.S.E. so eager to get rid of him? So eager in fact that they immediately terminated his employment and forgot to gift him a gold watch for services rendered. Of this, in addition to Rocco Martino’s statements, there is documental proof.
Il Riformista reveals that Nigergate involves some other interesting players. The first of these, the Iraqi nuclear scientist, Jafar Dhia Jafar, makes some fascinating claims regarding questions asked of him by the UN fact finding mission to Iraq, INVO (Iraq Nuclear Verification). In his recently published book Jafar states that when questioned, on January 20 2003, by the head of INVO, Jacques Baute, he was informed that he was in possession of information pertaining to Iraq’s attempts to acquire uranium in Niger. Jafar asked where this information came from to which Baute replied that it was “recieved from a certain country on the condition that it wasn’t shown to Iraq”. What makes this fascinating is that officially Baute didn’t receive the Niger documents until the following February. So what documents was he refering to and where did he get them. Is it perhaps too much of a coincidence that Jacques Baute happens to be French and a fervent opposer of the war?
Yet another personality tied to Nigergate is the Admiral Giuseppe Grignolo, an Italian with an intelligence services background. Cited by La Repubblica in one or another of the series of delirious articles Grignolo is a perfect example of the dark and seedy side of intelligence. The admiral has made a career of being been involved in scandals ranging from the Iran-Contra affair to the murder of Ilaria Alpi. Admiral Grignolo was involved in shady commercial deals between a French company, Lucaire, and Iran.
So to conclude Italy did not do any hidden favours to the United States, nobody from SISMI or the Italian Government ever gave falsified documents to the NSC or the CIA. No talks or meetings were held behind the CIA’s back. What La Repubblica has seen fit to publish is no more than a series of lies, untruths, slander and shoddy, dishonest journalism.
Once the F.B.I. has completed its investigation the dark hand of the perpetrators will be revealed for all to see. While awaiting this more needs to be done to reveal the equally dark hand of the international cabal composed of psuedo journalists, morally bankrupt journalists, highly unprofessional journalists and outright liars of journalists. It will be interesting to see what the F.B.I. comes up with to link the cabal to the plotters.
Thank you for your insight. Saving for future reference.
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