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September 06, 2004

Italian Sources: France Forged Niger-Uranium Docs to Embarass Bush and Protect Saddam

U P D A T E D -- Now with quoted print source

Heard about this on Special Report With Brit Hume, and a reader just tipped me with an English-language print link.

According to the report, the Italians are fingering the the French intelligence services as the culprits behind the forged the Niger-uranium documents. They intended to first fool Bush and Blair and then reveal them as forgeries later, so as to embarass them, discredit them, undermine the case for war, and protect their client Saddam Hussein.

They used an Italian-born hustler as their catspaw.

Their desire to continue their lucrative business dealings with Saddam is named as the primary motive.

HERE is a link to the UK Telegraph's story. Excerpts follow.

A row has broken out between France and Italy over whose intelligence service is to blame for the Niger uranium controversy, which led to Britain and America claiming wrongly that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy material for nuclear bombs.

Italian diplomats say that France was behind forged documents which at first appeared to prove that Iraq was seeking "yellow-cake" uranium in Niger - evidence used by Britain and America to promote the case for last year's Gulf war.

They say that France's intelligence services used an Italian-born middle-man to circulate a mixture of genuine and bogus documents to "trap" the two leading proponents of war with Saddam into making unsupportable claims.

They have passed to The Sunday Telegraph a photograph which they claim shows the Italian go-between, sometimes known as "Giacomo" - who cannot be identified for legal reasons - meeting a senior French intelligence officer based in Brussels. "The French hoped that the bulk of the documents would be exposed as false, since many of them obviously were," an Italian official said.

"Their aim was to make the allies look ridiculous in order to undermine their case for war."

According to an account given to The Sunday Telegraph, France was driven by "a cold desire to protect their privileged, dominant trading relationship with Saddam, which in the case of war would have been at risk".

...

"This was la grande trappola [the big trap]. The Americans were now convinced by the French that Saddam really was trying to buy uranium. They thought the French must be right, since not even a gram of uranium in Niger could be shifted without their knowledge."

British officials still say that the claim about Iraqi uranium purchases rested on a second source, not just the now-discredited documents. Intelligence officials from some other Western countries now believe, however, that the second source was also France - part of a "sinister trap" for Mr Blair.

French intelligence was asked by The Sunday Telegraph for a public comment on the allegations against it, but has yet to give one.

There's more at the link, especially about the Italian cut-out "Giacomo."

.........

Our "valuable allies"? Will John Forbes Kerry dare to defend France against this clear-cut enemy action?

As the man says:

IMPACTING HARD...

Background: France has previously denied any involvement, despite the suspicions of the British.

A similar story here.

VCR/TIVO Alert: If you want to see the report yourself, check out the repeat at 12:00 AM eastern time. The item is the leadoff of the Political (or Wartime) Grapevine section of the show, about halfway through the show.

Thanks to AKA Q for finding the print report, which utterly eluded me.

Been There, Done That: MeTooThen disappoints me by noting that both Barcepundit and Roger L. Simon had this yesterday.

Sorry-- I really thought I was scooping the blogosphere. I guess one needs to be quicker than that.

I'm still leaving the siren up, though.

Irresponsible Speculation Update: Recall that Joe Wilson publically said he knew for a fact these documents were forgeries, despite his later admission that he never saw them (or saw them very late into the process).

Mark wants to know: was Wilson an agent, either witting or unwitting, of the French Deception?

posted by Ace at 09:52 PM

Comments

Ace,

From "http://www.rogerlsimon.com/mt-archives/2004/09/_and_i_thought.php">Roger L. Simon: Here

NB: RLS got the story from Barecpundit.

Posted by: MeTooThen on September 6, 2004 10:22 PM

Ace,

Sorry, I will fix the links.

Roger L. Simon

Barcepundit

Posted by: MeTooThen on September 6, 2004 10:27 PM

Thanks, but I'll think you'll agree today's report breaks substantial new ground.

The reports you cite suggest French complicity. But apparently we're getting some proof, and furthermore we're getting their intent and motive.

Posted by: ace on September 6, 2004 10:29 PM

Quel dommage!

Posted by: zetetic on September 6, 2004 11:11 PM

Ace,

I linked to the same story.

Loose shit.

Anyway, I'm glad you posted it.

Keep up the good work.

Posted by: MeTooThen on September 6, 2004 11:13 PM

MeTooThen,

Sorry, I thought I clicked on your link and saw an earlier story.

I guess RLS had this all along.

Oh, well.

Posted by: ace on September 6, 2004 11:19 PM

Now if only Joe Wilson could somehow be tied to all this....If I remember correctly, he did have some inside info. that the docs were forgeries.

Posted by: Mark on September 6, 2004 11:27 PM

Well, if you're leaving the siren up, I'm still linking to you for the coverage. I need to wake up in six hours-- I can't afford to work the night shift again ;-).

BTW, Ace-- didya ever get my email earlier today? I didn't know if you've checked your Yahoo account today, but I didn't get a reply. Just wanted to make sure it all worked out.

Finally, if you get a free moment, stop on over to my site, I've got Michael Moore news and views aplenty.

Cheers,
Dave
Arlington, Virginia

Posted by: Dave on September 6, 2004 11:31 PM

C'est merde!

Posted by: Kina on September 6, 2004 11:31 PM

Ace,

LOL.

Thanks for the hat tip.

But actually, there are three links up there.

The "Here" link has the Telegraph Story.

You are an Ace and a gentleman.

Posted by: MeTooThen on September 6, 2004 11:41 PM

a photograph which they claim shows the Italian go-between .... who cannot be identified for legal reasons

Operative A) "Here's a photo of the go-between that we have been following" (handing over piece of paper)

Operative B) "But..It's a blank piece of paper"

Operative A) "Exactly"

Posted by: DelphiGuy on September 7, 2004 12:48 AM

So how the hell were they going to sell this crap when we've already found like 140 tons of the freaking unanium? I mean, who the hell cares if Niger talked to Iraq about selling them unanium. The whole question was whether or not he was trying to buy unanium, right? Well, he had a trainload of yellowcake and like 11 tons of already refined stuff.

Posted by: Dacotti on September 7, 2004 01:34 AM

Thanks for the link, Ace!

Posted by: Franco Alemán (from Barcelona, Spain, the proud new member of the Axis of Weasels) on September 7, 2004 03:21 AM

Joe Wilson was definitely trying to bring down President Bush with the uranium claim. When he made the statement that "he knew the documents were forged because the names and dates were wrong." I believe that was a true statement he made at that time, but it was also a major screw-up by him. He should be put in jail, instead of being let off the hook? Sandy Berger, John Kerry and Joe Wilson, three US officials who've all been caught attempting to undermine their own government, by falsifying evidence, forgery, and deception. Why aren't all of them sitting in jail waiting to be tried? Is treason and aiding and abetting our enemy not a crime any more? What the hell is going on?

Posted by: Gary B. on September 7, 2004 06:23 AM

Phucking Phrench. They never stop with the bullshit.
Europe; the place that brought us the last two world wars, and learned NOTHING.

Posted by: lauraw on September 7, 2004 09:46 AM

Worst ally ever

Posted by: Moonbat_One on September 7, 2004 11:15 AM

This is an act of war.

Posted by: Alan on September 7, 2004 01:45 PM

Oh, and thanks for using the word 'catspaw.'

Posted by: lauraw on September 7, 2004 02:40 PM

**2**

Posted by: on September 18, 2004 08:24 PM

I love your writing style - are there any good IRC chat rooms or yahoo chats or aol web cam chats or something where I can chat with people like you and learn something in real time instead of bit by bit on a blog?

Posted by: chat with people on October 6, 2004 12:44 AM