Italian Lawmaker Says.. Warned U.S. That Iraq Uranium Docs Were Fake

[lavenderdiva]

Italian Lawmaker Says Country's Secret Service Warned U.S. That Iraq Uranium Documents Were Fake

11-03-2005 12:15 PM
By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer

ROME -- Italian secret services warned the United States months before it invaded Iraq that a dossier about a purported Saddam Hussein effort to buy uranium in Africa was fake, a lawmaker said Thursday after a briefing by the nation's intelligence chief.

"At about the same time as the State of the Union address, they (Italy's SISMI secret services) said that the dossier doesn't correspond to the truth," Sen. Massimo Brutti told journalists after the parliamentary commission was briefed.

Brutti said the warning was given in January 2003, but he did not know whether it was made before or after President Bush's speech.

The United States and Britain used the claim that Saddam was seeking to buy uranium in Niger to bolster their case for the war. The intelligence supporting the claim later was deemed unreliable.


From left, Italian SISMI military intelligence services Director Nicolo Pollari, Cabinet Undersecretary Gianni Letta, and COPACO (parliamentary control committee on intelligence services) President Enzo Bianco attend a meeting in Rome, Thursday, Nov. 3, 2005. Letta and Pollari appeared before a parliamentary commission Thursday to respond to allegations that Italy knowingly gave the U.S. and Britain forged documents suggesting Saddam Hussein was seeking uranium in Africa. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito)


link:
http://neworleans.cox.net/cci/newsnational/national?_mode=view&_state=maximized&view=article&id=D8DL57U81

its startin' to hit the proverbial fan... IMHO.

[maddezmom]

1. why yes, can't wait to hear the WH spin on this

:evilgrin:

[Gunit_Sangh]

5. re: spin

Bird Flu ... bird flu ... bird flu.

[UpInArms]

9. will that bird sound like a duck or a parrot? ......... eom

[clydefrand]

28. It'll be a quack; you can bet on that!

[daleo]

2. "About the same time"

Any money says that really means "before".

On edit - Now that Scooter has pled not guilty, all of this becomes grist for questioning in an actual trial, with penalties for perjury. The neo-cons must want to get rid of Scooter badly.

[Up2Late]

32. Yes, of course it was before, I even remember hearing interviews...

...on NPR regarding this. This is why they made the last minute change in the speech so that it would say, "The BRITISH Government has learned..."

This is another one of those conveniently ignored by most of the Corporate controlled Media that they chose not to report.

I'm not sure if it was on one of the National NPR shows or if it was on "The Diane Rehm Show" or another one of those semi-local NPR shows. It would take a good bit of searching, but I bet someone could find it.

[daleo]

33. Good recall

Now that you mention it, I also remember how they had to switch their lie to "the British government says".

[napi21]

3. Rhuh Roh! Yet another country telling Shrub he lied!!!!

He sure better treat The English visitors well during their visit. I think the Brits are the only friends he has left!

[jazzjunkysue]

21. Coalition of the shilling.

[ClintonTyree]

25. A few of the Brits, 99.9% despise him........

only the co-conspirators of this illegal, immoral war still support him. The ones that are up to their ears in this pack of lies created with the bush administration are their only "friends" and I wouldn't be at all surprised if they begin deserting this sinking ship soon as well.

No one wants the "bush taint" on them anymore. He'll be left alone, swinging in the wind. It will be a sight to behold.

[johnfunk]

4. Italy warned U.S. that documents about purp.d Iraq uranium dekeal were fa

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/34592.html


ROME - Italian secret services warned the United States months before it invaded Iraq that a dossier about a purported Saddam Hussein effort to buy uranium in Africa was fake, a lawmaker said Thursday after a briefing by the nation's intelligence chief.

"At about the same time as the State of the Union address, they (Italy's SISMI secret services) said that the dossier doesn't correspond to the truth," Sen. Massimo Brutti told journalists after the parliamentary commission was briefed.

[frankly_fedup2]

11. Well, well, well. Then why did the Italian Government send troops

into Iraq once our troops were there? Were they not the ones to bring their troops out after one of their workers or soldiers was beheaded due to their continued support of the U.S.

I wonder when they had their troops leave Iraq if they didn't agree for Bush to set up his torture camps in Italy? That way they would still get some of those good no-bid contracts of cash plus oil.

Where is all that oil going anyway? Has anyone ever heard?

Isn't it about time for Scotties press conference he holds everyday? The senate is voting on CSPAN 2, and some guy is talking about the SCOTUS on CSPAN 1.

Oh well, they are going to categorically deny anyone had told them this. Or, they can say that they were aware of what Italy had said but found more evidence. That last statement would be a tuffy though because that is what Wilson came back saying. Hmmm, this one might just have them by the balls.

Now we saw how they ruined a prominent newsman's career when Dan Rather had to resign over a supposed forged documents regarding Bush not finishing his service duties due to the "font" being used did not even exist at that time.

I always wondered if anyone stopped and thought that maybe the a copy, done more recently, but was told it was the original may have been the document that was provided. The "Font" BS didn't fly with me. Also, CBS couldn't stand behind Rather any better than they did. I quit watching them that day forward. I watch NBC because they came out with the most information about FEMA and what was not going on and what was going on during the storms.

[johnfunk]

6. KABOOM!

:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:
:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

Game over, Chimpy. Game over, Big Time. Wilson was right. You were wrong.

[seemslikeadream]

7. Does anyone have a link to Scotty's press conference

where he denied the WH ever got docs from Italy?

[Chi]

17. These are the only things I found.....

MR. FLEISCHER: I think this remains an issue about did Iraq seek uranium in Africa, an issue that very well may be true. We don't know if it's true -- but nobody, but nobody, can say it is wrong. And, therefore, the judgment the White House has made is that it should not have risen to the level of the Presidential State of the Union address.

Q What do you know about the sourcing of the British report? There's some idea that it came from Italian and/or French sources.

MR. FLEISCHER: As Dr. Rice said on the shows yesterday, we do not know the sourcing of the British report.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030714-4.html
=================================================
Q -- suspect intelligence about the uranium come from Italy originally? Will that be talked about?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think that these leaders -- that leaders like Prime Minister Blair or Prime Minister Berlusconi, these are opportunities for us to continue to talk about how -- to continue to talk about the progress we are making in the war on terrorism, to continue to talk about the progress we are making in bringing stability, security and prosperity and democracy to Iraq, which is very important to a stable and peaceful Middle East. And that will make the world a much safer place for all people, including the American people. So that's what's important.

Let me go over the week ahead. You already have from last week the information on Prime Minister Berlusconi. Monday afternoon, following the visit with Prime Minister Berlusconi, the President will return to the White House. And there are no public events. Tuesday there are no public events to announce. If that changes, we will let you know.

Wednesday the President will meet with the President of Argentina in the Oval Office. That afternoon he participates in the ceremony for the 2003 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in the East Room. Thursday the President will travel to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he will make progress -- where he'll make remarks on his jobs and growth plan. From there the President will travel to Detroit, Michigan, where he will meet with small business owners before making remarks on the economy. And that evening the President will attend a Bush Cheney 2004 reception before returning to Washington, D.C.

Friday morning the President will meet with the President of the Palestinian Authority, which we announced yesterday.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030718-10.html

[seemslikeadream]

18. Thanks Chi

I didn't know about those, thanks a lot. :hi:

But there was one just the other day where Scotty says something like

no documents

We didn't recieve any information from Italy

[Oilwellian]

19. You can find it on Josh Marshall's site

It's still on the first page.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/

[seemslikeadream]

23. Thanks George Oilwellian, Scotty's version isn't the same as Hadley's

Is it?

:hi:

[Tin Man]

24. thanks - good info there. n/t

[jbnow]

8. Who did they tell

in the US? Wonder if they gave names.

[seemslikeadream]

10. Hadley

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051103/pl_afp/usitalyintelligenceciairaqniger

on edit: not Hadley, I think I heard on MSBNC they told the Amereican Embassy they were fakes

[bigbrother05]

12. I'm guessing Berlusconi's meeting did

not go as planned, Roves brain is not speaking the same language.
the rats are jumping ship

[Boo Boo]

13. Of course, Nicolo Pollari has been fingered in recent news accounts

as having been involved in stove-piping those docs, perhaps even participating in faking them. He also requested an appearance before the commission, so this is likely to be ass-covering on his part. I'd take anything he says with a huge grain of salt. Considering that he met with Neocons outside of official channels and subsequently passed phony intelligence, he's either a dimwit, or a liar---or both.

It'll be interesting to find out when Italy notified the U.S. I'll put my money on after the SOTU.

[DoYouEverWonder]

20. Makes you wonder why they killed

Nicola Calipari and David Kelly?

[daleo]

34. And who was David Kelly's last email to?

Why Judith Miller, of course. Which takes us back to Scooter, which takes us back to Cheney, which takes us back to Bush.

[Peace Patriot]

14. Sounds like the Italian government is undergoing an internal struggle

similar to our own, between the ruthless, lying, war profiteering, torture-loving, mass murdering fascists, and the honest people who think that their job is to prevent war, not start it, and to uphold the law.

Stay tuned.

[savemefromdumbya]

37. I thought the majority of the Italans were against it

but their leader was bought by bush

[understandinglife]

15. Finally.

Peace.

[lonestarnot]

16. Smelling a little poopie in here!

[jazzjunkysue]

22. It's beginning to smell alot like Fitzmas!

The B** crime family can't muzzle the italians, methinks.

Oopsie...

[PurityOfEssence]

26. So where were you right after the '03 state of the union address?

Did you think the information that allegedly came from the British was something beyond what you'd already discredited?

It's a bit late to have butter not melting in your mouth; what's the deal?

[Straight Shooter]

27. Remember how strong bush was perceived to be at that time.

Contrast it with now. Our financial and military resources are increasingly depleted. Our country is showing an ever-widening gap between those who oppose and those who support the War on Iraq. The Italians are no different than anyone else; they will seize an opportunity to redeem themselves when they sense that the ability to retaliate is severely weakened.

We will see if they have the documentary evidence to back up what they are now claiming.

[NashVegas]

29. According to the Latest, He's RECANTING

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/006924.php

Remember how the Italian government said that in January 2003 they'd warned the US that the Niger docs were forgeries. Well, just out from AP ...

Commission member Sen. Massimo Brutti told reporters after the closed-door session that that the commission was told that the Italian secret services warned the United States in January 2003 that the dossier was fake.

But later, the senator called The Associated Press to retract that statement. He said that the commission was not told that the Italians had warned the Americans.

Brutti said he was confused by the barrage of reporters' questions when the lawmakers emerged from the briefing. He said when he had the opportunity later to check his briefing notes, he realized he had misspoke.

Brutti said what he meant to say was that the commission was told that a SISMI official, contacted by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria, about the dossier, told the U.N. agency that "those documents didn't come from Sismi, they weren't produced nor supplied by Sismi."

[daleo]

35. Sure, he is recanting.

Someone got to him, and reminded him of the story they all plan to use. This is one more breach in the dam, though.

[prescole]

30. The bigger they are, the harder they fall

and DUHbya's fall is going to be haaaaaaaaaaaaaard.

Kinda fun watching it in slow motion.

[zbdent]

31. But George W. Bush and the Republicans all told us that

everybody but France, Germany, and Russia and us lefties were aware of the truth and behind us 100 percent . . .

[Up2Late]

36. What I Didn't Find in Africa -- by Joseph C. Wilson 4th

(Just in case not everyone here has read this, here's Joe Wilson's original NYT Op-Ed piece.)

<http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0706-02.htm>

Published on Sunday, July 6, 2003 by the New York Times
What I Didn't Find in Africa
by Joseph C. Wilson 4th


Did the Bush administration manipulate intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs to justify an invasion of Iraq?

Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.

For 23 years, from 1976 to 1998, I was a career foreign service officer and ambassador. In 1990, as chargé d'affaires in Baghdad, I was the last American diplomat to meet with Saddam Hussein. (I was also a forceful advocate for his removal from Kuwait.) After Iraq, I was President George H. W. Bush's ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipe; under President Bill Clinton, I helped direct Africa policy for the National Security Council.

It was my experience in Africa that led me to play a small role in the effort to verify information about Africa's suspected link to Iraq's nonconventional weapons programs. Those news stories about that unnamed former envoy who went to Niger? That's me.

In February 2002, I was informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney's office had questions about a particular intelligence report. While I never saw the report, I was told that it referred to a memorandum of agreement that documented the sale of uranium yellowcake — a form of lightly processed ore — by Niger to Iraq in the late 1990's. The agency officials asked if I would travel to Niger to check out the story so they could provide a response to the vice president's office.

<http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0706-02.htm>
(much more at the link above)

[northamericancitizen]

38. Bush' empire started to go down a year ago. Election night.

Here and there lies are getting exposed.
Piece by piece his castle is being dismantle.



It's crumbling down baby and nobody will be there to catch you.

[understandinglife]

39. Laura Rozen: "The (Niger forgeries) Report that Wasn't"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5258912&mesg_id=5258912


Peace.

[Up2Late]

40. What we knew then: Posted February 12, 2003 on AlterNet

(Lots of great working links too!)

Lying Us Into War

By Dennis Hans, AlterNet. Posted February 12, 2003.

In his rhetoric on Iraq, George Bush employs elaborate techniques of deceit to promote his agenda.

President George W. Bush and his foreign-policy team have systematically and knowingly deceived the American people in order to gain support for an unprovoked attack on Iraq.

Before I catalog the Bush administration’s “Techniques of Deceit,” let me acknowledge that no U.N. resolution requires the president to be honest with the American people. The fine print of Resolution 1441 imposes no obligation to treat Americans as citizens to be informed rather than suckers to be conned. He may mislead, distort, suppress, exaggerate and lie to his heart’s content without violating a single sentence in 1441.

So if compliance with 1441 is all that matters to you, read no further. Turn on the TV and tune in Brokaw, Rather, Jennings, Blitzer or Lehrer, to name five of the journalistic imposters who control what you hear and see, who seem psychologically incapable of conceiving of Bush as a liar, and who wouldn’t have the guts to call him one even if they reached that conclusion. But if you are an American citizen who believes in the bedrock democratic principle of “the informed consent of the governed,” read on.

<http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/15171/>
(more at link above)