Italian daily publishes false uranium documents

[Kellanved]

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=6406

Italian daily publishes false uranium documents


La Repubblica says documents riddled with obvious errors which should have raised suspicions of secret services.


ROME - A left-leaning newspaper heaped embarrassment on the Italian government Wednesday by publishing clearly false documents implicating its secret services in the Niger-Iraq uranium affair, days before Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi visits Washington.

The La Repubblica daily infers in its two-page report that Italy's military intelligence service, and those of Britain and the United States, was apparently duped by obviously questionable material used to bolster the case for going to war against Iraq.

The documents, said to be at the root of allegations that Saddam Hussein sought nuclear materials from Niger, are at the centre of an international row over how intelligence was used in the run-up to the conflict.

...

[Ediacara]

1. How do we know

that what La Republica published, are the real fake documents?

[papau]

2. Fake - Fakes - from Bush's friends! - no way - Adults are in charge

:-)

Liar amd the I word - we can not say those because, just like the GOP/media respected a Dem president, we should respect Bush and give him the benefit of any doubt - there might be green cheese on the moon - who is to say that, who knows FOR SURE - and CAN YOU PROVE IT - that that is a lie?. And do not ask questions - for the GOP, personal privacy extends to a decision to make war and get folks killed - hey - it was not a blow job.

These are the US Media rules - our Not right wing controlled media -- they just ACT like they are right wing controlled.

[Kellanved]

3. Hmm

real fakes or fake originals. Wheels within wheels.

[ward919]

13. Remember this: It's not the documents that are the problem...it's

the USE of the documents that were the problem!

[VolcanoJen]

4. More... new link

This seems to me to be a very, very important issue. The forgeries were so amateur, so ridiculous, how in the world did this get past our intelligence professionals, let alone into the SOTU Address?

I am rather certain that we were discussing these obvious forgeries here at DU months and months ago. Glad to see they've finally been published for the world to see.

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,200128,00.html

Excerpt:

La Repubblica published what it said were photocopies of the original documents passed to Italian agents by an African diplomat in November 2001 - a telex from Niger's ambassador to Rome, two letters and a protocol with Iraq on the purchase of uranium.

They were riddled with obvious errors.

For example, a protocol between Niger and Iraq dated October 10, 2000, bears the signature of Allele Habibou, Niger's foreign affairs and cooperation minister, even though he ceased to be a minister in 1989.

[Kellanved]

5. yes

Although the quality(or lack thereof) of the fakes and the most obvious errors (the President's Signature, the Letterhead and the Minister out of office among them) were known for some months now, it'll be very interesting to have them with pictures.

[Ediacara]

6. but again

How do we know that the "fakes" La Repubblica published are the REAL fakes. In other words, did LR publish new fakes, or are these the authentic SOTU inspiring fakes?

[Lexingtonian]

7. The news is about the Italian secret service involvement

Berlusconi lied a few days ago, claiming that the bogus Niger/Iraq documents weren't first obtained by Italy. That was contrary to what was considered known about them. This article is locally a full blown lese majeste, an egg in the face for Berlusconi which also happily jams up Blair.

So: the liar tally
Berlusconi: the bogus documents came from somewhere else. Status: disproven.
Blair: we have secret 'other evidence' about Iraq getting uranium too. Status: doubtful, likely to get disproven.
Bush: the English had enough evidence to make the case. Status: doubtful, likely to get disproven.
Aznar: (it doesn't matter) Status: he's going down too.

Lies already abandoned: everything about rockets, planes, chemical and biological weapons.

[VolcanoJen]

8. Kick!!

:dem:

[Star]

9. picture from ABC News

edited to add link to ABCNews story:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/US/uranium030716flaweddocs.ht

Also, this is the link to the Guardian story.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,999745,00.html

[VolcanoJen]

10. Is there a link where we can actually look at the documents?

Star, this story is fascinating to me. Is there a link to ABC News where we could see close-up photos of the Niger documents? If so, could you post that link here?

Thanks!!

- Jennifer

[RedSock]

11. LINKS

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/US/uranium030716flaweddocs.html

In one document that supposedly formalizes the sale of uranium to Iraq, dated October 2000, bears the signature of a man who has not been Niger's foreign minister since 1989.
http://abcnews.go.com/media/Nightline/images/Ross_forged_3.pdf

Another letter is both addressed to the president of Niger and signed by the president of Niger — although it uses the wrong symbol for the president's office.
http://abcnews.go.com/media/Nightline/images/Ross_forged_1.pdf

The forger also had a difficult time keeping his dates straight. A third document, dated July 1999, refers in the past tense to a supposed agreement in June 2000.
http://abcnews.go.com/media/Nightline/images/Ross_forged_1.pdf


EDIT:

one of those should be Ross_forged_2

[Kellanved]

12. two words missing : in march.

--snip
"It was not really very difficult for us to come to the quick conclusion that these documents were forgeries," ElBaradei told Germany's ZDF Television. "
--snap
http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/3/0,1872,2052990,00.html


Thanks for the links, I would have tried to get a copy of the newspaper tomorrow.



Edit: the word are missing in the text by abc.