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FBI Renews Forged Iraq Documents Inquiry
The FBI has reversed its decision to close the investigation of forged documents on alleged Iraqi uranium purchases from Niger, a senior federal law enforcement official confirmed late Friday (see GSN, Nov. 7). The agency had closed the inquiry last month into the papers — used by the Bush administration to argue for the invasion of Iraq — determining they were forged in an effort to obtain money rather than to change U.S. policy. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), vice chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, requested the renewed investigation, citing concern that the forged documents might be evidence of a “larger deception campaign.” The documents include correspondence on Niger government letterhead and mock contracts for uranium sales. Former Italian freelance spy Rocco Martino provided the papers to an Italian magazine in 2002, and they were then passed on to the U.S. Embassy in Rome, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday. “I don’t expect the results to be any different. I think the answer is going to be that [Martino] wasn’t acting in behalf of any government or intelligence agency. This guy was trying to peddle this to whoever he could,” said the senior official. The agency did not interview Martino during its initial investigation, a senior FBI official said. Investigators could examine whether U.S. citizens who advocated war against Iraq instigated the forgeries, or whether the Iraqi National Congress was involved, federal officials told the Times (Wallsten/Hamburger/Meyer, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 3).
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