Interesting. "According to some reports", though--do we have a source on that? Cannistraro was saying something like that about Castelli and I'd want that from a source independent of him (since I don't trust him as far as I can throw him). It'd make sense that Thielmann saw those early reports, though, so that sounds plausible.
The first instalment gives a detailed account of the origins of the documents (or most of them, my note) up to the autumn of 2001 when Nicolò Pollari passed the false SISMI dossier to Rome CIA station chief, Jeff Castelli. In a previous diary I had alluded to the possible role of Castelli in the Nigergate scandal. Castelli wrote a report and forwarded it to the Greg Thielmann's Bureau of Intelligence which eventually dismissed this first report as unfounded.
It is a known fact that a report on the bogus, made-in-Rome dossier ended up at the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence—in the Office of Strategic, Military and WMD Proliferation Affairs.
Strategic Affairs is not a big place. At the time, 16 analysts worked there under the direction of Greg Thielmann. Thielmann tells La Repubblica: I received the report in fall of 2001. We thought that Langley had acquired it from their field officer in Italy. The agent in the field reports that Italian intelligence permitted him see some papers documenting the attempt by Iraq to acquire 500 tons of uranium ore from Niger.
I know I saw a better source on this, however, will see what I can find. I don't like sourcing from moonbat sites blaming the Italians, LOL!
FALL 2001 (WASHINGTON) CIA analysts in Washington report that Castelli's memo from Rome is "somewhat limited" and is "lacking in necessary detail." The State Departments intelligence analysts (under Greg Thielmann) report that the Italian intelligence referred to in the Castelli memo is "highly suspect." Remember, the US supposedly still does not have a copy of the forgeries the intelligence is based on, the forgeries presented here.
However, the Italian newspaper does say they did interview Thielmann for this article.
Look at page 76 of the Silberman-Robb Report. CIA had received three reports from "a liaison intelligence service" in late '01 and early 2002. "One of these reports explained that...during meetings on July 5-6, 2000, Niger and Iraq had signed an agreement for the sale of 500 tons of uranium." And the "liaison service" provided a "verbatim text" of the agreement. Got that? Not the document, but a text. They were keeping the documents to themselves, and they wouldn't tell us the source, because, they said, they were afraid of leaks.