DETROIT -- The Italians know the truth and what's really important. Risotto, not Rizzuto, is the big story.
Irving Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, is indicted for lying about his role in outing a covert CIA officer.
Libby shares his nickname with New York Yankees Hall-of-Fame shortstop Phil "The Scooter" Rizzuto. Libby's investment banker father gave him the moniker when he saw the child scrambling in his crib and cracked, "He's a scooter."
Libby is accused of lying big-time to FBI agents and a federal grand jury about his contacts and what he told reporters about the classified identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson.
Libby and other White House operatives -- most notably Karl Rove -- sought to discredit her husband, Joseph Wilson, who debunked the hoax that Iraq bought enriched uranium from Niger. Risotto-loving Italian journalists have found the complicated grains of evidence linking the propagation of the Niger hoax to the White House and the office of Condoleezza Rice. Her dirty deeds are far more serious than Libby's lies.
Rice sold the lie that resulted in an unnecessary war and the deaths of more than 30,000 Iraqis and 2,000 American soldiers.
The reports in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica read like a blend of a cheap spy novel and the scenario for a new Roberto Benigni film. It has intrigue, greed, double-dealing, deception and ambition. The story bounces from Rome to Niger to Luxembourg to Paris to London to Washington.
Benigni, known for his Academy Award-winning "Life is Beautiful," also directed and acted in hilarious comedies.
The plot and the Italians involved in the great Niger uranium hoax could easily be molded into yet another Benigni comic masterpiece. Like his films, this true caper has mistaken identity, wild consequences, bizarre twists, grotesque characters, powerful manipulators and an overwhelming sense that what's happening is just too incredible to imagine.
Benigni himself gets the choice role, a character with a perfect name for the screenplay, Rocco Martino. He's a former Italian intelligence service operative who was fired for "defects in character." The "happy-go-lucky" Rocco is a charming con artist who's been arrested on racketeering charges in Italy and for passing stolen checks in Germany.
Since being drummed out of his government job, Martino has been doing private espionage work, selling intelligence to the highest bidder. He's based in Luxembourg and does freelance spying for any organization that will pay for his "consulting services." Money, not national allegiance, drives Martino. He likes to brag, "My trade is this: I sell information."
Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe D'Avanzo, investigative reporters for the paper, have masterfully uncovered the details of the hoax that began with Martino looking to make easy money and ended with collusion at the highest levels of the Italian and U.S. governments.
The reporters have learned of a secret meeting at the White House between the head of SISMI, Italy's military intelligence agency, and Condoleezza Rice's then-deputy Stephen Hadley, now the national security adviser. The purpose of the meeting was to revive and peddle the hoax that Saddam Hussein sought to buy uranium from Niger.
On Sept. 9, 2002, Gen. Nicolo Pollari met with Hadley to discuss documents he claimed supported Iraq's uranium buy. Pollari had previously told La Repubblica, "I am director of intelligence and the only person I have spoken to in Washington on an institutional level since September 11 has been the director of the CIA, George Tenet. Obviously, I speak only to him."
Pollari got caught in his lie when the White House confirmed the meeting with Hadley did take place. Pollari was doing an end run around the CIA, because he knew the American intelligence agency recognized the documents as crude forgeries.
Within weeks of the White House meeting in her office, Rice was out at every forum she could find, uttering her classic line, "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."
Rice coupled the uranium hoax with one of the many lies New York Times reporter Judy Miller got plastered on the front pages of her paper: that Iraq was trying to acquire specialized aluminum tubes needed to refine the uranium into weapons-grade material. Pure crap. Rice and Cheney delighted in propagating Miller's myth. They leaked lies to her.
That's why Libby turned to her to attempt to discredit Wilson, and expose his wife's job with the CIA. Is there a soul on earth who believes Miller's claim that she doesn't recall who told her about "Valerie Flame," as she wrote the name in her notebook? Miller is a disgrace to journalism, a serial liar and a protector of traitors.
Why would the Italian government get so deeply involved in this sordid tale? Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi wanted to ingratiate himself with the Bush administration. Gen. Pollari remembered the Niger uranium story and had contacts that helped hatch the hoax.
Back in 1999, spy-for-hire Martino heard the French government was worried that someone or some government was engaged in a "prosperous clandestine trade in uranium." The French controlled the Niger uranium mines and frowned on the business loss. Enter Rocco Martino. He "smelled a business opportunity": helping the French to find out who had been pirating their uranium.
Martino knew that Saddam bought uranium in the '80s. After the Gulf War, United Nations inspectors successfully dismantled Iraq's nuclear program and it was never "reconstituted." Martino figured if he could show Iraq was involved in securing uranium, the story would have a degree of plausibility. There was no evidence to support the story. No problem for the resourceful Rocco. He'd just make it up.
He turned to an old pal with SISMI, Antonio Nucera, looking for help in making some Niger connections. Martino said any contact, any report would do. Nucera put Martino in touch with a source who worked at the Niger embassy in Rome, a 60-year-old woman known as the Signora. The Signora put Martino in touch with Zakaria Yaou Maiga, first counselor at the Niger embassy, a notorious spendthrift who was also looking for quick money.
On New Year's Day, 2001, there was a faked break-in at the embassy. Official Niger government seals and stationery were stolen. Maiga actually broke into his own office. Maiga, Martino and the Signora sat down for a dossier-fabrication party.
Martino brought their work of fiction to Paris and the French intelligence agency gave him a big wad of cash. Nice piece of work. Rocco headed to the Riviera, and the French, easily spotting the scam, threw the documents away.
Twenty-four months later, President George W. Bush cited the fake dossier as evidence that Iraq was an imminent nuclear threat. Imagine the howls from Martino, the Signora and Maiga, hearing the leader of the free world using their little caper to lead a nation into war. Hell, they were just looking for a little money.
The forgers did an awful job. Their "memorandum of understanding" between Niger and Iraq was filled with errors that "could be spotted by someone using Google on the Internet."
The order called for 500 tons of uranium, yet Niger can only produce 300 tons in a year. Imagine Saddam putting massive quantities of nuclear materials on a documented shopping list: "Yes, my friend, pick up my uranium, six pitas, two kilos of hummus and eight dozen stuffed grape leaves."
Dates and names were wrong, titles were mixed up. But the ridiculous fraud got an unexpected resurrection on Sept. 11, 2001. Bush and Cheney, desperate for any link between Saddam and weapons of mass destruction, sent out the word to our allies for help. Italy's Berlusconi hastily obliged. Pollari, his new military intelligence chief, wanted to please his boss, who wanted to please his pal Bush. Martino's caper now had legs.
Rocco had also peddled his bogus documents to Britain's M-16 intelligence agency and to some diplomats from African nations. Nigergate was out there for anyone stupid enough to buy it or cynical enough to use it.
Bush and Cheney usually rely on the Fox News Channel and shills like Judy Miller to pimp their propaganda.
But billionaire Berlusconi just uses the media outlets he owns. Three days after his man met with Rice's aide, "Panorama," a weekly magazine Berlusconi owns, published a story claiming Iraq made a big uranium buy. The report noted Iraq's intelligence agency, Mukhabarat, acquired the material though "Nigeria." Niger. Nigeria. What difference does it make, as long as you can pin the rap on Iraq?
Elisabetta Burba, a reporter for "Panorama," received documents that were purported to support the claim. She smelled a rat and would not write a story, but another reporter did. An editor ordered Burba to take the documents to the U.S. Embassy in Rome, and they were immediately cabled to Washington. Who gave the documents to the reporter? Why, of course, Rocco Martino. Think of Benigni smiling, counting the cash.
Berlusconi denies his government played any role in peddling the hoax, and says he opposed the invasion of Iraq. Funny, he never mentioned that before.
Rice welcomed the great Nigergate lie into the White House. Libby lied trying to cover up the caper. Risotto is the major league criminal. Rizzuto is just a bush leaguer.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Nov. 1 2005 |