Oct 24 2005
UPI: Fitzgerald Investigating Niger Forgeries
This is stunning, and good news for Bush, Rove and Libby. UPI is reporting Fitzgerald is investigating the Niger Forgeries, per NATO sources:
The CIA leak inquiry that threatens senior White House aides has now widened to include the forgery of documents on African uranium that started the investigation, according to NAT0 intelligence sources.
As I have pointed out before, the actual leaking of classified information was the publication of the intel, methods and conclusions surrounding Saddam’s nuclear intentions (here and here).
The fact Fitzgerald is looking into the forgeries means he is not satisfied with at least one person’s statements – Wilson. Recall Wilson was caught knowing more than he should by the Senate investigation of 2004. All the early stories by him and Kristof and Pincus refer to names and dates that were in error on the Niger documents. If this was a case of Wilson knowing more than he should after the fact it is bad enough. If it is a case that he knew details about the forgeries earlier than he should it is a really big deal.
There is no way to spin the forgeries against the Bush administration. These documents came from Italy and were simply additional information to what the UK had on Saddam’s desires to purchase uranium in Africa. As we all know now, even Wilson uncovered Iraqi attempts to discuss the subject of ‘trade’ with Niger – a one commodity nation. But to connect Bush to these documents is a stretch hard to comprehend could be possible.
The second is that NATO sources have confirmed to United Press International that Fitzgerald’s team of investigators has sought and obtained documentation on the forgeries from the Italian government.
I know Mac Ranger will have something to say about this – he has long hinted the source of the forgeries could be the left wing anti-war crowd.
Interesting article from July in the Washington Post on the matter.
UPDATE:
Here is another voice of sanity while the media drools all over itself in a fit of liberal fantasizing.
UPDATE II:
More sanity here at IBD. I am now more confident Fitzgerald will do the right thing and not make telling the truth illegal.
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Damn! If he traces the source of that document to anyone in this country – the CIA in particular – there will be hell to pay in Plame’s little division at WINPAC. They apparently were the ones, along with their counterparts at the State Department, who originally said the docs were valid.
I always wondered why we (US Govt.) didn’t pursue who forged the docs. Of course maybe we did, and we did find out the author of those Docs, and things were “taken care of” off the record, so to speak.
The Intel guys who post here and at Mac’s might be able to answer if we still “take care of business” off the record. In my mind I would hope so. Not everything can be above board in the spy business.
Dear AJ,
Is there any information about who the con-man was that fabricated these documents?
Do you know what language they were written in?
Are these fabricated documents published anywhere so we can read them?
Thanks!
This is finaly making sense to me now. Good work AJ. The below links include some interesting clues and timelines.
This has the CIA’s finger prints over these documents. DiGenova asks the right questions:
http://www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/italianconnection.htm
British and Italian governments confirm forgeries were Italian
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/entity.jsp?id=1521846767-1472
Rocco Martino, an Italian security consultant, provides French officials with documents suggesting that Iraq intends to expand its “trade†with Niger. Martino was formerly a member of Italy’s foreign intelligence service (SISMI). The French assume the trade being discussed would be in uranium, Niger’s main export. At French intelligence’s request, Martino continues supplying them with documents.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/MAR410A.html
Rocco Martino – Italian Spy Discusses Own Role in Iraq-Niger Traffic Hoax
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,1002062,00.html
Elisabetta Burba, a journalist at the current affairs magazine Panorama, said she received the documents in October 2002 but concluded they did not stand scrutiny and passed them to US diplomats in Rome.
Rove Was On The Grassy Knoll, Update IX
And as I have been saying for some time now, I believe the left is going to sorely disappointed when Wilson, Plame and her cronies are indicted instead of Rove and Libby. It’s appearing more and more that this was a operation against the Presid…
This is starting to have the ring of reality to me–I mean, it’s a logical thing to investigate.
Here’s a stupid question: would Rove or Libby have walked into a photo-op meeting with the President today if they had received a letter from the SP informing them that they were likely targets of intictment?
I just don’t think they would.
IRONY PILED ON TOP OF ABSURDITY IN L’AFFAIRE d’PLAME
As Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald methodically goes about the business of deciding whether to indict one or more White House officials in L’Affaire d’Plame, it is becoming increasingly clear that no one is going to jail for telling …
[…] Rick left a comment on my earlier post on Fitzgerald investigating the Niger forgeries where he alluded to the fact these forgeries were initially passed as good through Valerie’s own area of the CIA! Rick states that area was WINPAC, but we all believed Plame worked for the more covert CPD section all this time. Well, she definitely did at the time of Wilson’s trip. But I am beginning to realize there have been too many discrepancies about where she worked when (Miller’s notes in 2003 have her at WINPAC). […]
[…] The article glosses over the election power play made by a group of CIA partisans – probably centered in Valerie Plame’s WINPAC division at the CIA – who sought to interfere in the election of an American President by selectively leaking information about the Iraq WMD to friendly reporters. All along, we’ve gotten hints that have led to speculation that the real reason for Wilson’s trip (besides his wife’s attempt to help get his fledgling consulting business get off the ground) could have been an attempt to embarrass the President. My friend AJ at Strato-Sphere, who has been on top of this case from the outset, has a link to a UPI report that show Fitzgerald was investigating the source of the so-called Niger forgeries; documents that purported to show Iraqi attempts to buy Niger yellow cake. […]
[…] Rick Moran had commented on an earlier post of mine that WINPAC would not be happy that Fitzgerald was looking into the Niger documents – because his recollection was they had something to do with the initial confirmation of the Niger Intel. I give Rick credit for a pretty darn good memory – including the tip it was addressed in the Senate investigation report. He was very, very close! […]