LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.  
November 24, 2009
Log in / Register

 Choose a size
Text Size

Most Read

Obama Risks Losing His Judicial Prize

For 23 Years, Fully Aware but Mute and Paralyzed

Refuse Allegiance to Coal

That's One Big Bang for Mankind

Playbill

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports
 * NEW! * To Your Health—and Mine

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture
Freedom’s Fight: Part II

Digs
Financial Meltdown 101
Vetting Sarah Palin

Truthdig Bazaar
Toward an Open Tomb

Toward an Open Tomb

By Michel Warschawski
$14.95

more items

 
Ear to the Ground

‘Forgers’ of Niger Uranium Contract Named

Email this item Email    Print this item Print   
Posted on Apr 9, 2006

Remember the uranium ore that Hussein supposedly purchased from Niger? A contract documenting the sale was used as evidence of the need to invade Iraq and was included in a 2002 U.S. State Department fact sheet on Iraq’s weapons program. Remember how the IAEA denounced the documents as fakes shortly before the invasion of Iraq? Well, according to the Times Online, the forgers have finally been named.

The Sunday Times:

Two employees of the Niger embassy in Rome were responsible for the forgery of a notorious set of documents used to help justify the Iraq war, an official investigation has allegedly found.

According to Nato sources, the investigation has evidence that Niger’s consul and its ambassador’s personal assistant faked a contract to show Saddam Hussein had bought uranium ore from the impoverished west African country.

The documents, which emerged in 2002, were used in a US State Department fact sheet on Iraq’s weapons programme to build the case for war. They were denounced as forgeries by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) shortly before the 2003 invasion.

link

More Below the Ad

Advertisement


Elsewhere: .

Comments

Are you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.

By Snorri Sturluson, April 10, 2006 at 1:23 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Not sure I believe this.  It’s my understanding that the forgery was pretty sloppy.  Among other things, if I remember correctly, the individual listed as Foreign Minister of Niger was not in office at the date listed on the document, and some of the other government officials’ names were misspelled.  I would think employees of a Niger embassy would have gotten these things right.

Report this

By Theway2k, April 9, 2006 at 10:29 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

One thing is absent from the story. What was the motive for forging the documents?

Report this

By cassiopeia, April 9, 2006 at 6:17 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

So I guess this begs the question. Where they acting on their own or did someone ask them to do the fakes. And, if they were acting on their own because they perceived there was a market for the fakes, how come they passed muster with so many intelligence guys who, one hopes, know what they are doing?

Report this

Add Your Comment

Posts by unregistered readers are moderated. Posts by members
are published immediately. Why wait? Register today!







Number of characters remaining: 4000

Notify you when others comment on this article?


Are you a human?
Retype the word you see here.


Please read and abide by our comment policy.
By submitting this comment, you agree to this site's terms and conditions.

 
 

 
Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
Copyright © 2009 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.