Italian agents probed Iraq's ties to Niger uranium (new It. probe)

[LauraK]

Italian secret agents investigated whether Iraq was trying to acquire uranium from Niger in 2001 and shared their information with foreign intelligence services, a government official said on Wednesday.

But Italy's military intelligence organisation (Sismi) did not acquire or pass on any false documents to U.S. or British secret services, as some media have suggested, he added. <cut

''Sismi was dealing with the issue in 2001, but it never acquired those documents,'' Fabrizio Cicchitto, a member of parliament's secret services committee, said after emerging from a closed-door parliamentary inquiry.

''There was no transfer of documents (between Italian and allied secret services) but a reciprocal exchange of information via channels other than those mentioned in the media.''

Cicchitto's comments backed up Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini who on Tuesday denied Italy had played a role in passing false information to Washington or London.
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More here

[papau]

1. Not France, Germany, or Italy - so why did CIA out errors in?

or to put it another way, why did CIA develope cover story of error prone national that we aquired documents from.

And why did Blair MI6 summary of fakes become "separate" source not shared with US.

And Why is Bush trying to destroy Blair - oh wait - Blair is not a Tory

Blair is on the left and trusted Bush - silly fellow.

Well, George is having fun isn't he - first the national Democratics and the DLC - then the DNC - all trusted Bush - and all got kicked to the curb.

Maybe Dean - and Kerry finally - have got the right idea. Bush is not to be trusted - period. Now if the media finds out and accepts this truth, we might have a real election in 04.

[displacedtexan]

2. interesting...

"Gianni Letta, a senior aide to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, told the parliamentary inquiry Italy did not have any of the documents published by la Repubblica but did possess other papers detailing Niger's sale of uranium to Iraq.
He said he could not hand these over to the parliamentary inquiry, however, because it could jeopardise Sismi's sources. He also said those documents had not been shared with any other intelligence services.
While the White House has said its information on Iraq and Niger came from false documents, Britain has stuck by its claims about Iraq's uranium plans, saying they were based on solid evidence from a third country."


so, the UK has 'solid evidence' it can't show; italy has evidence it can't show; we have evidence we can't show...
hhhmmmmmmmmmm...
sounds like a lot of double-secret paper shuffling to me.