I'll take responsibility.
The French needed to get the actual documents in American hands, so they used an Italian reporter and had her deliver them to American Embassy in Italy.
To work, the actual documents must be exposed, yes. But now I wonder if Bill Burkett might've had something to do with this...
Wasn't that an Italian reporter who was a hostage in Iraq and then killed as she was being rescued ... shot by Coalition forces when signals got crossed that she was coming through the checkpoint?