Has any REAL journalist looked into the Niger document story? I hear stories about them being forged, but has this ever been verified by anyone with any integrity?
The story is that French intel was looking into the story (and since the mines in Niger are French, if they were making contraband shipments, the French themselves would be involved). They obtained some legitimate documents referring to uranium smuggling. They commissioned the agent to obtain more documents, which he did, working with employees of the Niger embassy in Rome.
These documents were signed, or had a forged signature, by a Niger official no longer in office, although obviously the Niger embassy would know that.
He handed those documents with the forged signature over to French intel. French intel handed them to CIA. CIA leaked to the press that the Niger story was based on forged documents, which as it turns out were commissioned by French intel and produced by the Niger government.
The press had a field day with it, and were allowed to ignore the fact that the original story was true, the French had real documents that they didn't turn over, the French themselves were doing the smuggling.
When Libya turned "state's evidence" it turned out that they had received contraband shipments of uranium from Niger, despite Wilson story.
As for Iraq, they had sent a delegation there in 1999, which Wilson knew to be true. In pointing at the fake documents, he sought to shift attention away from this and other efforts to smuggle uranium.