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Italians Name Source of Forged Niger Documents
The head of Italy’s military intelligence agency yesterday told Italian lawmakers that a freelance agent was the source of forged documents detailing alleged efforts by prewar Iraq to buy uranium from Niger, the New York Times reported (see GSN, Nov. 3). SISMI chief Nicolo Pollari identified Rocco Martino to a parliamentary commission in Rome that oversees the agency. Pollari told the panel Martino had been “kicked out of the agency,” but did not say Martino forged the documents, according to Senator Massimo Brutti. Martino has been quoted in news reports as saying the documents came from a source in Niger’s embassy in Rome. While Martino has been suspected for some time, this is the first time the intelligence agency has formally acknowledged his role. Brutti said yesterday the United States had been warned that the documents were fakes in early 2003. “At about the same time as the State of the Union address, [Italian intelligence] said that the dossier doesn't correspond to the truth,” he said, adding that he does not know if the warning came before President George W. Bush cited the documents in the speech in making his case for war. Brutti later seemingly backed away from this statement, telling wire services that because Pollari’s agency never had the documents, he could not speak to their value. Senator Luigi Malabarba said that Pollari told the committee that Martino was “offering the documents not on behalf of SISMI but on behalf of the French” and that Martino said he was working for French intelligence. A French intelligence official would not comment on whether Martino was a French agent but called Pollari’s assertion “scandalous.” Pollari pledged that no Italian intelligence agents were involved in forging or distributing the documents, according to Brutti and committee Chairman Enzo Bianco. Committee members also saw documents in support of Pollari, including a July letter from FBI Director Robert Mueller. The message, confirmed by FBI officials, said the documents were distributed by a person for profit and dismissed the idea that Italian intelligence services misled U.S investigators. As a result, the FBI has closed its investigation of the documents (Sciolino/Povoledo, New York Times, Nov. 4).
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