Kerry'sFrenchFriends Bhind Fake Uranium
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| Mon, 09-20-2004 - 12:54am |
By Bruce Johnston in Rome
(Filed: 19/09/2004)
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/19/wniger19.xml
The Italian businessman at the centre of a furious row between France and Italy over whose intelligence service was to blame for bogus documents suggesting Saddam Hussein was seeking to buy material for nuclear bombs has admitted that he was in the pay of France.
The man, identified by an Italian news agency as Rocco Martino, was the subject of a Telegraph article earlier this month in which he was referred to by his intelligence codename, "Giacomo".
His admission to investigating magistrates in Rome on Friday apparently confirms suggestions that - by commissioning "Giacomo" to procure and circulate documents - France was responsible for some of the information later used by Britain and the United States to promote the case for war with Iraq.
Italian diplomats have claimed that, by disseminating bogus documents stating that Iraq was trying to buy low-grade "yellowcake" uranium from Niger, France was trying to "set up" Britain and America in the hope that when the mistake was revealed it would undermine the case for war, which it wanted to prevent.
Italian judicial officials confirmed yesterday that Mr Martino had previously been sought for questioning by Rome. Investigating magistrates in the city have opened an inquiry into claims he made previously in the international press that Italy's secret services had been behind the dissemination of false documents, to bolster the US case for war.
According to Ansa, the Italian news agency, which said privately that it had obtained its information from "judicial and other sources", Mr Martino was questioned by an investigating magistrate, Franco Ionta, for two hours. Ansa said Mr Martino told the magistrate that Italy's military intelligence, Sismi, had no role in the procuring or dissemination of the Niger documents.
He was also said to have claimed that he had obtained the documents from an employee at the Niger embassy in Rome, before passing these to French intelligence, on whose payroll he had been since at least 2000.
However, he reportedly also added that he had believed that the documents in question were genuine, and to have never suspected that they had been forged. "Martino has clarified his position and offered to deliver to the magistrates the documents which confirm his declarations," his lawyer, Giuseppe Placidi, told Ansa.
It was not possible to contact Mr Martino through his lawyer yesterday. Contacted by The Telegraph, Mr Ionta politely declined to comment, but did not deny that the questioning had taken place. The Interior Ministry in Rome, which had also expressed keen interest in the Telegraph article, refused to comment on the matter.
Mr Martino is said by diplomats to have come forward of his own accord and contacted authorities in the Italian capital following the earlier article in the Telegraph. They said he had written a letter of resignation to the French DGSE intelligence service last week.
According to an Italian newspaper report yesterday, members of the Digos, Italy's anti-terrorist police, removed documents from Mr Martino's home in a northern suburb of Rome on Friday afternoon.
"After being exposed in the international press, French intelligence can hardly be amused or happy with him," one western diplomat said. "Martino may have thought the safest thing was to hand himself over to the Italians." Investigators in Rome suspect that Mr Martino was first engaged by the French secret services five years ago, when he was asked to investigate rumours of illicit trafficking in uranium from Niger. He is thought to have then been retained the following year to collect more information. It was then that he is suspected of having assembled a dossier containing both real and bogus documents from Niger, the latter apparently forged by a diplomat.
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<< Does this mean you agree there was NO uranium sought, as Bush claimed in his state of the union address?
>>
You agree or disagree with OPINIONS. FACTS are either correct or incorrect.
http://messageboards.ivillage.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=iv-elpoliticsto&msg=2767.171
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First of all, if Kerry were to be negotiating personally with Rocco Martino and the person who forged the documents then you might have a case. The title of your thread insinuated that these people are Kerry's "friends" and that somehow, he had something to do with this. It's a typical tactic of the right. Make strange comparisons and try to tar the opponent with "guilt by association" even if that association is mythical.
I think it might be a good thing if some negotiations could take place between the US and other countries to help share the burden of Iraq. Just because it started off on the wrong foot and is going in a disasterous direction doesn't mean that things can't be turned around. But, if the US wants to let pride get in the way of sharing some of the costs, then by all means, make no concessions and keep paying for the whole thing yourselves.
Also, if the US were entirely guilt free of participating in any number of historical backroom deals in an attempt to influence world events in their favour you might also have a case.
There seem to be many who think that the US should never bother to negotiate with anyone. Of course when we are talking about the FRENCH well....if you've met one, you've met them all right? If that is the case perhaps it might be best if the US just blows the rest of us off the face of the earth and be done with it (it's not like you don't have enough WMDs....just do it quickly so we don't see it coming). Then you can have the whole planet to yourselves and not have to worry about having to make concessions, share or get along with anyone else. Especially since no one else is worthy of your time.
*donning my radiation suit*
;o)
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