ABC NEWS: Niger document author believed discovered.

[htuttle]

Just heard, no link yet:

According to ABC World News Tonight, they've learned that the forged Niger documents were originally created by a former Nigerois diplomat in Rome. He sold them to the Italian intelligence services for a few thousand dollars. They speculated that the former diplomat, who's been recalled to Niger, saw an opportunity to make some money from the Iraq/WMD controversy.

In other words, this is all due to a 419 letter gone terribly wrong..... (my words, not theirs).

Got a link now:

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/US/uranium030714_docs.html

[grytpype]

1. I called it right.

Just what I thought... some African conman who didn't even know who was in his own government.

[joeunderdog]

31. Court TV will now be able to hold the next Trial of the Century

And Bush can hang the guy who provided him with his excuse to go to war.

[RobertSeattle]

2. Wow does this mean...

...That journalist are actually acting like journalists???

Wow!

[madmax]

7. Terry Moran is doing a pretty good job

filling in for Peter Jennings on ABC News.

Check this out:
Baghdad Days
http://abcnews.go.com/Sections/WNT/

[NNN0LHI]

3. I hope the money he got spends well in hell n/t

[madmax]

5. Three thousand dollars

can you believe it!!!!

[DUreader]

4. Where ever it came from, IAEA determined it was crap within hours

I have trouble believing that our darn good intel. agencies

didn't know that as well.

[Frances]

6. I am suspicious

because I think the Nigerois diplomat would not have made the mistakes that were in the Niger documents. Even if he did not know the correct names, it would have been so easy for him to get the names.

My guess is that the Italian intelligence people created the documents in order to win favor with the U.S. I think they are giving us this Nigerois diplomat in order to have a scapegoat. Most of the public will buy this story that a greedy African is responsible.

[hedda_foil]

12. Could be .... or could be that he was just an embassy employee.

It's equally possible that it's a low level scam by someone with access to government letterhead ... a Nigerois employee of their embassy in Rome, but not actually a diplomat per se.

[Kellanved]

18. Nope- the letterhead was fake

Or at least severly outdated. That was one of the things recognized by the IEAE instantly.

[htuttle]

19. That's what I wondered as well when I heard it

It seemed very odd that a former diplomat would make a mistake on who held what office in his own country. ABC said, that at the time that he was apparently still working out of the Niger embassy in Rome.

[dweller]

8. it's now called a 'scam' (ABC)

in other words, the *moron got scammed.

poor doofus, he's either too incompentant to be president, or just plain dishonest afterall.

dp

[Rose Siding]

14. Or the CIA got scammed...

which the CIA probably won't like the sound of very much. Maybe they'll be so mad there will be more leaks. Yay.

[roguevalley]

9. Great.

first, we lift a grad students thesis that is twelve years old and
now a Niger ex-diplomat blows us a big one. Aren't we just the greatest super power in the world?!

[indictrichardperle]

11. Im not buying this

France wasnt involved, Italy is being named..but they deny it.

I think it might be a country involved, that we "just dont want to name".

Its alot easier just to say "Uh an African conman tricked us".....bullshit, this was another govt, helping out in the propaganda department.

[Guaranteed]

32. Another foreign government....but who?

Hmm. Well...seems to me we should just try to think of a foreign government that would benefit greatly from Saddam's regime being taken down, but also wants to stay out of the spotlight. I think I might have an idea of who that might be. Nah, couldn't be. If anyone else has any ideas, let me know. :dunce:

[Jim Sagle]

34. And the fact that there's no evidence proves it!

[Guaranteed]

37. On the other hand....

If there WAS evidence, it would prove it WASN'T true ;)

[aquart]

21. Not since George got his third-rate hands on us.

American Empire. Yeah, right, George.

Asshole. We HAD an empire. A trading empire. Now it's shot to shit.

[laconicsax]

10. I find it hard to believe that

this is actually the latest breaking news when it's something that I read a long time ago--that someone sold Italian intel the document and Italy gave it to the UK.

[Julien Sorel]

30. Ditto.

I heard at least a month ago, but I think it was longer, that the documents came via Italy. I'm completely stumped as to how this could be a big deal.

[Dhalgren]

39. The big deal, imho,

is that this amateurish piece of garbage actually fooled anyone. The UN agencies had it pegged right off, but our guys ran with it because .... it was so authentic looking? I mean it had African names and everthing! No freakin' way the CIA bought this trash for even a second - MI6 either. This whole thing stinks to high heaven

[berry]

41. UK official is on tape (and transcript I assume) saying tonight on

PBS NewsHour that the UK never saw or touched the forgeries until after the SOTU--FWIW (and he could be lying of course). So the official line in the UK seems to be that the fakes went from Italy to the US directly??

It would really help to have an itinerary for these dratted Niger fakes...

One thing I think is clear--the US waited about 6 weeks after being asked before turning them over to the UN. This was because they KNEW they were fakes and didn't even care if they were exposed (since "who cares what they think?") as long as they could build up support for the war in the meantime. All along, as they lied their way to war, they were depending on "success" to cover all their sins. They had no idea they might fail, so they had no cover, no plans. IOW, I guess it's good they're so dumb--what if they really were the brilliant Machiavellian geniuses they thought they were?

Sigh.

[David__77]

13. Time to dig...

Perhaps this person, if this account is right and he is the actual author, is nothing but a rank opportunist. However, he may instead be a patsy hired by more important forces. These, if they exist, must be identified.

[realFedUp]

15. I hope he doesn't get a book deal or rightwingradiotalkshow

out of this. :eyes:

[PeanutOne]

16. No, but maybe a seat on the board of the Carlyle Group

He's certainly earned it!

[w4rma]

17. Cheney Investigated Forged Niger Uranuium Document

As though this were normal! I mean the repeated visits Vice President Dick Cheney made to the CIA before the war in Iraq. The visits were, in fact, unprecedented. During my 27-year career at the Central Intelligence Agency, no vice president ever came to us for a working visit.

During the '80s, it was my privilege to brief Vice President George H.W. Bush, and other very senior policy makers every other morning. I went either to the vice president's office or (on weekends) to his home. I am sure it never occurred to him to come to CIA headquarters.

The morning briefings gave us an excellent window on what was uppermost in the minds of those senior officials and helped us refine our tasks of collection and analysis. Thus, there was never any need for policy makers to visit us. And the very thought of a vice president dropping by to help us with our analysis is extraordinary. We preferred to do that work without the pressure that inevitably comes from policy makers at the table.

Cheney got into the operational side of intelligence as well. Reports in late 2001 that Iraq had tried to acquire uranium from Niger stirred such intense interest that his office let it be known he wanted them checked out. So, with the CIA as facilitator, a retired U.S. ambassador was dispatched to Niger in February 2002 to investigate. He found nothing to substantiate the report and lots to call it into question. There the matter rested – until last summer, after the Bush administration made the decision for war in Iraq.
...
http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=6e9d5502599dc6a2
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=5858&mesg_id=5858&page=

Niger-Uranium Timeline
http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/PageServer?pagename=niger_timeline

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION AND WMDs: THEN AND NOW
http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/PageServer?pagename=bush_wmd_summary

[NewYorkerfromMass]

42. Thanks for an excellent post

kick

[tomp]

20. i don't believe it.

i, for one, am not so easy to be conned. i'll wait and see how this develops.

[maxsolomon]

22. i got an email from this guy!

he wanted to get some money out of africa through my bank account...

[Kellanved]

23. LOL (n/t)

[Aaron]

24. I think I got that one too lol (n/t)

[robbedvoter]

27. Here's Scooter Boy's:

Dear Mister Gaorge Bush:
Please keep this in the strictest confidense. You do not know me, but my
name is Umbuto Johnson, and I am the grandson of Ashtari P. Johnson, in
charge of the nuclear programme of the African country of Niger.
For severale years, my grandfather had been secretly selling radoactiv
materiels to the little known country of Iraqe. He was given the sum of
twenty million dollars by Saddem Hussan, of Iraqe, for this materiels.
When my grandfather was discovered, two years ago, he was shot by the
government. The money from those sales however remained hidden to all.
Before he was caoght, my grandfather shared with me his secret, and gave
me instructions on how to move the moneys out of the country. In order
to do this, I need the help of a trustworthy American friend and this is
why I am seeking to write to you today.
In order to recieve the moneys I must pay a fee bribe of twenty thousand
American dollars. I do not have this moneys. If you can send to me these
moneys, I will split my grandfathers moneys with you.
Please tell nobody of this message, for I fear I will be in grave danger
if it is known. I am relying on you, George Bush, to keep my secret.
Respond to me and I will tell you how to send the moneys to me.
Your frend,
Umbuto Johnson

[Jacobin]

38. LMAO

I can't tell you how many people sent me that "original" scam letter....you nailed it.

[tonyblurr]

25. W & WOLFOWITZ WARROOM

Our troops are paying the price for a quick-win war.

Bad planning and over-confidence have left a dangerous legacy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/cartoons/stevebell/0,7371,986156,00.html

Mission Accomplished?

Explain the BODYBAGS BUSH...

The BODYBAGS.

[Starpass]

26. Do You Get this Sick Feeling in Your Guts???

Ahhh...how many billions are we spending for this crackerjack information we are receiving? There's a big fucking lie out there one way or the other. Either the CIA/FIB/Military Intelligence, et al couldn't find a sinking elephant in the middle of the their living room even if it dumped a pile of dung that could be smelled down wind for 10 miles OR we are being lied to (think??). My god, I was the leader of Girl Scout troops who could figure "clues" out better than these morons. Are they really morons. OR OR OR are they just the convenient fall guys to be blamed by the worst assault on on democracy ever--the Bush crime brigade??..and blamed because they can't strike back or speak out?? If I were them, I would strike out before I ended up hung in the public square by this pathetic, daddy's boy loser. And I would strike out in the way in which I was trained: I would leak all the info I have on this douche bag and his crime family.

[Lexingtonian]

28. This is "new"?

I swear I saw all the facts mentioned here on some documentary TV show a few months ago. (Maybe Bill Moyers's?) It was one of the attaches, iirc, and there was a flap after the IAEA complained to the government of Niger resulting in the guy getting called in for "consultations" in Niger for, as it turns out, a few months. Best as I remember. (Or maybe it was in something like 'Der Spiegel'.)

I don't think any of it is considered news outside of the continental United States.

[Oreegone]

29. This has been around for months

And now it makes the National News....I suppose this is going to excuse the President.. somebody picked up something obviously untrue and it ended up in a SOTU message.....I think not....what a schill game.......

[Nottingham]

33. Well this makes me feel so Safe! To Know America is Protected by

these Freakin IDIOTS!! :bounce:


What kinda Intelligence Agency is this and what kinda State Department do we have and What is a Vice President doing Messing with the CIA

[dArKeR]

35. I thougt it was Hatfill with his African connections.

A copy of Hatfill’s military records, obtained by Newsweek, shows that Hatfill joined the US Marines in 1971, but was discharged a year later. During an interview with The Washington Post, Hatfill’s lawyer, Victor Glasberg, refused to respond to questions on Hatfill’s 15 years in southern Africa, saying it was irrelevant to the anthrax investigation, but noted that Hatfill developed his interest and speciality in viruses such as Ebola while in Africa.

Hatfill served in the Rhodesian Special Air Service (SAS) and the notorious Selous Scouts before enrolling for a medicine degree with the Godfrey Huggins School. Symington and the Rhodesian army are alleged to have brokered an arrangement with university authorities to have Hatfill accepted as a student. The school, even to this day, does not accept foreign students coming from countries with medical training institutions.

Symington later left the UZ for South Africa soon after independence, where he died of a heart attack a year after joining the University of Cape Town.

After graduating from the UZ in 1983, his protégé, Hatfill, also left for South Africa, where he acquired several masters’ degrees before joining the apartheid regime’s military medical corps on a one-year assignment to Antarctica. He returned to the US in the mid-1990s, where he worked as a government bio-defence scientist at Fort Detrick’s Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. Hatfill regaled to colleagues with tales of his exploits as a cold warrior in the 1970’s, fighting with the elite SAS troops and the infamous Selous Scouts.

But US records show that he was in America for at least two of the years he claimed to have been fighting in Rhodesia. Apparently, Hatfill’s biography is riddled with gaps where classified projects presumably belong. From 1975 to 1978, he served with the US Army Institute for Military Assistance, while simultaneously serving in the Rhodesian military.

http://www.africaonline.co.zw/mirror/stage/archive/021019/national3174.htm



In the last few days, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has started
to scrutinize his unfinished novel which describes a paralyzing attack
against the White House and Congress in which dozens of people are sickened
and die, including the fictional president and top congressional leaders. 
Two of the anthrax letters last year were mailed to Democratic leaders in the
Senate, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Senator Patrick Leahy. 

However, the most intriguing aspect of the anthrax investigation is the
connection between Dr. Steven Hatfill, the individual that the FBI has
described as a "person of interest," not a suspect, and the anthrax outbreak
during the war period of 1978-80 in the then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe.

The question being increasingly asked is what role Dr. Hatfill played during
the "biggest anthrax outbreak among humans ever recorded, the one that
sickened more than 10,000 Black farmers in Zimbabwe in 1978-80," according to
Nicholas Kristof, a columnist for the New York Times.
http://www.indypressny.org/anthraxsuspect.htm


http://www.geocities.com/darkerxdarker

[Guaranteed]

36. The heart of the lying issue

...can be found here:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1802&e=8&u=/washpost/a48847_2003jul12
I'd post this on the Latest News Board as a new thread, but, I can't do that yet...so...hopefully someone else will. I think this is the kill shot. This proves the CIA told the White House well before the SOTU that the Iraqi nukes claims were fraudulent.

[tonyblurr]

40. Bush Whitelies House in crisis over Iraq warlies

Cringing before a gangster administration

"The latest exposure of Bush’s Iraq war lies is a crisis, not only for the administration, but for the entire US political establishment.

Bush White House in crisis over Iraq war lies

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/iraq-j14.shtml