'France and Italy gave information on Saddam'...

[cantwealljustgetalong]

Two foreign governments, thought to be France and Italy, supplied Britain with the intelligence for its claim that Saddam Hussein's Iraq had sought uranium from Africa.

The Financial Times has learnt from senior Whitehall sources that the information came from two west European countries, and not from now discredited documents that proved to be forgeries.

...

http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1057562362080

[Kellanved]

1. The "Niger" papers

Those were "summarized" and forwarded by Italy.
To France, from there to the UK.
The actual papers followed later; the summaries were not verifiable.

[Fovea]

2. And they got that information

probably from the same reliable sources as the forged document.

[Maple]

3. They goofed on the 'Italy' one

They're supposed to be still blaming France and Germany.

Even Russia for that matter.

Italy was part of the coalition.

Tsk...can't keep their stories straight.

[NYC]

4. Italy had already been implicated.

Regarding France, if they simply conveyed or forwarded information supplied by Italy (as it says above) can they be considered a second source?

That's information from one country, not two.

[tsipple]

5. Q: Who Forged the Documents?

Anybody in the press asking? Anybody? Hello?

[Cooley Hurd]

6. Where it came from is irrelevant. It was discredited 4 mos before SOTU.

...yet Shrub & Co ok'd it for SOTU. That's the issue, at least for me...

[tsipple]

9. Source of Forgery Matters

Was it a pro-war PR firm hired by Halliburton? A Western intelligence agency? Osama?

[huckleberry]

7. but, but Italy is denying this per CNN...

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/07/13/sprj.irq..italy.uranium.ap/

and if France really believed this, why were they so against the war?

[are_we_united_yet]

10. Outstanding!!

Ya know, I am beginning to have my doubts about the Bush Administration.

Yes that was sarcasm.

[alfredo]

12. France was against the war for several reasons

One, the people of France would not have stood for it. Second, the French intelligence agencies are some of the best in the world. they know more about Saddam than any other agency. They knew the evidence Bush Inc was offering was bullshit. Tis better to be pilloried by Bush and Fox News than to face a war crimes tribunal.

[xchrom]

8. and so no one would check?

please?!?!?
these fuck ups will go to any length to point the finger at somebody else -- oy.

[Merlin]

11. It was Italy. This is Horsefeathers and a little sideswipe of France.

There was little doubt when this was originally researched that it came from Italy and the forgeries were probably done in Rome. I'll dig up a link if anyone's interested.

France was included because this is a convenient opportunity to smear them again for not giving Shrubco a blow job like Tony.

[ze_dscherman]

13. This is NOT the Niger forgery story!!!

The Financial Times has learnt from senior Whitehall sources that the information came from two west European countries, and not from now discredited documents that proved to be forgeries.

This information, which does not appear to have been passed on to the US, would suggest why the government felt confident enough to put it in a dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction last September.
---

This relates to earlier claims by the British that source of the "additional" intelligence information had to be kept secret. Now it's France and Italy.