Newsweek: FBI never interviewed Martino, says CIA source

My head is spinning!

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9938998/site/newsweek/
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Intel Probe: The Yellowcake Mystery

Nov. 14, 2005 issue - The FBI ended a two-and-a-half-year probe into the Niger uranium documents without resolving a key mystery: who forged papers used to bolster President Bush's case for war in Iraq? The bureau announced that the documents, purportedly showing attempts by Saddam Hussein's government to purchase yellowcake uranium, were concocted for financial gain rather than to influence U.S. foreign policy. But Sen. Jay Rockefeller, vice chair of the Senate intelligence committee, had questions. Without more info about the "thoroughness" of the bureau's efforts, he said, "I cannot make a judgment on the accuracy of the conclusions."

The forged documents are a backdrop to the CIA leak case involving the wife of ex-diplomat Joe Wilson. The CIA sent Wilson in February 2002 to look into the Niger uranium issue after Italy's military-intelligence agency, SISMI, got copies of the forged papers and sent reports about them to the CIA and other Western intel agencies. But a senior bureau official, requesting anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity, told NEWSWEEK the FBI never interviewed Rocco Martino, the Italian businessman who provided the documents to SISMI. Because there was no apparent violation of U.S. law, the bureau couldn't compel him to talk—even though he twice visited the United States last year to be interviewed by CBS's "60 Minutes." (The story never aired.) Last week Martino talked again, telling an Italian newspaper he played "a double, triple game"—working as a freelance agent for SISMI and French intelligence. Martino said he was instructed by a SISMI agent to pick up the docs from a woman at the Niger Embassy in Rome. "I was simply the deliveryman," he said, adding he had no idea the papers were fraudulent. Italian intel chief Gen. Nicola Pollari denied that his agency forged the documents, but claimed SISMI warned the United States the documents were fraudulent after Bush mentioned Saddam's interest in buying uranium from Africa in his January 2003 State of the Union Message.

Democratic frustrations about the Iraq war boiled over last week when Minority Leader Sen. Harry Reid forced the Senate into a rare closed session to demand progress on a stalled Senate intel-panel probe. Intel chair Sen. Pat Roberts then agreed to complete the investigation. The panel has assembled nearly 500 prewar public statements by officials of both parties about Saddam's weapons programs and terror links. Committee staffers have matched the pronouncements—which include statements by Dems and Clintonites as well as Bush spokesmen and Capitol Hill GOPers—with prewar intel reports. But Roberts says only senators—not staffers—should draft final conclusions about whether the public statements were hyped, a procedure that infuriates Dems. Critics say Roberts has also stymied an inquiry into whether Pentagon units "cherry-picked" intel reports on Saddam. Roberts turned that probe over to the Pentagon's inspector general; a spokesman for the Pentagon IG declined to comment.

—Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball

Bush, FBI, anybody-- Where is the "Probe"? Geez!!!

Too bad that's needed, huh?

Could you imagine that?

"My fellowmericans... uh, its obvious... becomes obviouser, that war - is OBVIOUSLY... is unavoidable... due to intelligence recieved from Rocco Martino..."

the entire country would've broken out of their warmonger spell and died laughing just at the name "Rocco Martino"

would you buy a car from a Rocco Martino, much less a reason to go to war?

couldn't he?

since he has been blabbing his mouth to various journalists for quite some time now. It will be interesting to see what happens on this.