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View Full Version : The Bush Administration Was Told Before Invading Iraq That WMD Niger Docs Were Fake



Gold9472
11-03-2005, 08:12 PM
Italian lawmaker: U.S. told of WMD forgeries
Senator says Bush administration was warned Iraq documents were fake

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9912352/

(Gold9472: Supposedly, this took place in January 2003, but they don't know if it was before or after the State Of The Union Address. Regardless, is it time to arrest them yet?)

Updated: 5:37 p.m. ET Nov. 3, 2005

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. Brutti, a leading opposition senator, said SISMI analyzed the documents between October 2002 and January 2003.

The United States and Britain used the claim that Saddam was seeking to buy uranium in Niger to bolster their case for the invasion, which started in March 2003. The intelligence supporting the claim later was deemed unreliable.

Italian lawmakers questioned Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s top aide and SISMI director Nicolo Pollari about allegations that Italy knowingly gave forged documents to Washington and London detailing a purported Iraqi deal to buy 500 tons of uranium concentrate from Niger. The uranium ore, known as yellowcake, can be used to produce nuclear weapons.

Pollari requested the hearing after the allegations were reported last week by the daily newspaper La Repubblica. Pollari and Cabinet Undersecretary Gianni Letta were questioned by members of a parliamentary commission overseeing secret services.

The closed-door session lasted about four hours, and commission members spoke with reporters after it ended.

La Repubblica, a strong Berlusconi opponent, alleged that after the Sept. 11 attacks Pollari was being pressured by Berlusconi to make a strong contribution to the hunt for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The Italian leader is a staunch U.S. ally.

Berlusconi’s government has denied any wrongdoing, and the premier has personally defended Pollari amid calls for his resignation.

Berlusconi denies
Berlusconi, in an interview with the conservative daily newspaper Libero published Thursday, said Italy had not passed any documents on the Niger affair to the United States. He added that La Repubblica’s allegations were dangerous for Italy because “if they were believed, we would be considered the instigator” of the Iraq war.

Brutti said the commission was told that the documents were forged by Rocco Martino, whom he described as a former SISMI informant. Both Brutti and commission chairman Enzo Bianco quoted Pollari and Letta as saying no SISMI officials were involved in forging the dossier or in distributing it.

The Niger claim also is at the center of a CIA leak scandal that has shaken the Bush administration, leading to last week’s indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby.

Libby was charged with lying to investigators about leaking the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, the wife of Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson. Libby pleaded not guilty Thursday.

Wilson accused the administration of covering up his inquiry into whether Iraq was trying to obtain uranium from Niger after he found the claim had no substance.

© 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Gold9472
11-03-2005, 08:23 PM
Here are multiple sources...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,174480,00.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9912352/
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1278019
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1627510,00.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002602057_webforgery03.html
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/uranium03.html

Gold9472
11-03-2005, 08:26 PM
Look at Fox's coverage... Absolutely no mention of the Bush Administration being told specifically...

Italy Warned U.S. Iraq Uranium Dossier a Fake
Thursday, November 03, 2005

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 (search) 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 (search) secret services] said that the dossier doesn't correspond to the truth," Sen. Massimo Brutti (search) 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 (search) to bolster their case for the war. The intelligence supporting the claim later was deemed unreliable.

The news comes on the heels of Italy's announcement that it would soon withdraw its troops from Iraq.

Gold9472
11-03-2005, 08:33 PM
Let's not forget the recent CIA Report (http://www.yourbbsucks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5449) that said, "In an ironic twist, the policy community (Gold9472: i.e. the Bush Administration) was receptive to technical intelligence (the weapons program), where the analysis was wrong (see "U.S. Intelligence Was 'Dead Wrong' About WMDs, Report Says"), but apparently paid little attention to intelligence on cultural and political issues (post-Saddam Iraq), where the analysis was right"

Gold9472
11-03-2005, 08:42 PM
And let's not forget the Downing Street Memo (http://www.yourbbsucks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1692) that said we were going to be sold on the war in Iraq through the, "conjunction of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction".

somebigguy
11-03-2005, 10:02 PM
Giddyup!!!!

PhilosophyGenius
11-04-2005, 12:23 AM
i hope these bastards go down