Posted on 11/04/2005 4:09:10 PM PST by Sub-Driver
FBI: Financial Gain Drove Uranium Forgery
48 minutes ago
The FBI has determined that financial gain, not an effort to influence U.S. policy, was behind the forged documents that the Bush administration used to bolster its prewar claim that Iraq sought uranium ore in Niger.
The FBI's investigation began after questions were raised about a brief portion of President Bush's January 2003 State of the Union speech when he said that Iraq was pursuing the uranium ore, part of his argument to justify the coming invasion of Iraq.
Some U.S. and foreign officials disputed the authenticity of documents, supporting Bush's contention, that showed Saddam Hussein was seeking the uranium ore for a nuclear weapons program.
The FBI had refused comment on the matter until Italian news sources reported this week that FBI Director Robert Mueller sent the Italian government a letter in July with the results of the bureau's two-year investigation.
The investigation "confirmed the documents to be fraudulent and concluded they were more likely part of a criminal scheme for financial gain," FBI spokesman John Miller said Friday, describing the contents of the letter.
Miller did not say what led the FBI to its conclusion or identify the perpetrators of the hoax.
Italian officials earlier this week identified Rocco Martino, described as a onetime informant for the Italian secret service, as the source of the forged documents, according to Italian Sen. Massimo Brutti.
Martino had previously given media interviews acknowledging his role.
But Italy's spy chief, Nicolo Pollari, denied that Italian intelligence had any hand distributing the phony dossier, Brutti and other lawmakers who attended a closed-door briefing said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Someone has decided the story is not worth pursuing..
Anyone else remember Al Gore's trip to Italy?
He had a suitcase full of money stolen from his hotel room.
I am still searching for it. It was posted here at FR.
They didn't use the forged docs for anything and they didn't claim that Iraq sought uranium in Niger. How goes the rest of the article? I thought I would try to get it right this time.
This report confirms (by the FBI) that Rocco Martino, failed former cop, failed former intelligence agent (Italy), convicted felon and under employ of another intelligence agency for years (France) was the source of the fake documents.
That should end this matter.
The fake documents were not the original source(s) for the intelligence saying Iraq was ATTEMPTING to purchase uranium from Niger anyway.
Miller did not say
Was Miller asked? Or did Miller refuse to say what led the FBI to its conclusion or identify the perpetrators of the hoax?
BTW, you got it right,imo.
I am not sure how to read this. what is the conclusion? why were they forged, for what motive were they forged and planted, does this article or the FBI even address that?
Does Rocco Martino have any connections to Joe Wilson's 2nd wife, the alleged French agent????
Were Joe Wilson's fingerprints on the bogus documents?
Did CIA or Fitzgerald make a phone call allowing the release of this info?
Did they just edit this article for space (yeah, right!) in the ommission of the fact that Bush's statement was based on good info from British intelligence?
Pinz
well let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet.
does this report address the motive for the forgeries? financial gain for who, why?
ping
It's Friday night on Free Republic, can I at least lead myself in the tinfoil dance? ;-)
Pinz
And confidential to the article's author, it was British Intelligence's contention, not Bush's ... RTFS
Report: Al Gore Robbed of $35,000
NewsMax ^ | 8/7/04 | Carl Limbacher
Posted on 08/07/2004 2:42:24 PM EDT by wagglebee
The next time former Vice President Al Gore complains "We wuz robbed," he won't be talking about the 2000 Florida election recount.
Gore and his wife reportedly had $35,000 worth of "valuables" purloined while vacationing in Italy this week.
"The Gores were robbed while staying in a luxurious villa in Castellina," a Tuscan source told the London Spy column in the Daily Telegraph. "One of the neighbors went in to sympathize, and Al told him that the thieves had taken about $35,000 worth of valuables."
The robbery, which was also reported by the New York Post, occurred while Gore was traveling without his usual security detail, with the ex-VP reportedly telling friends he was kicking himself at the oversight.
It's not clear what "valuables" were taken.
Gore's U.S. office could not immediately confirm the robbery, with a spokesman telling the Telegraph: "I have no information on this."
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1187020/posts
?
Was the forger planning to sell them? He could have probably tricked the CIA it seemed to have been deaf, dumb and blind for over a decade.
this story just led the FNC news break.
Yeah I have it on in the background.
http://cryptome.org/rocco-martino.htm
Has this been posted before? Spin by a con man?
Dated 2004
The FBI is blowing smoke at us!
I assert that this is the same FBI that didn't respond til the third phone call from Moussawi's flight school president and then didn't check his laptop.
If the forgeries were for the money only, they would have been much better than they were and not debunkable within two hours, as they were by the IAEA.
Why would the FBI pooh-pooh this when they were so zealous at investigating the un-outing of an un-covert CIA employee? Could they be just as compromised as the CIA?
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