Forged "yellow-cake" papers real spy "crime" (Nashua Telegraph)

[dooner]

Forged ‘yellow-cake’ papers real spy ‘crime’

John Hall, Nashua Telegraph
Sunday, Jul. 31, 2005

The outing of a CIA officer isn’t the only potential crime that occurred in the long, tortuous attempt to prove that Saddam Hussein was buying uranium from Africa. There also is the little matter of forgery.

Someone planted fake documents that helped both President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair reinforce their case that Saddam was actively seeking the raw material for an atomic bomb.
<snip>

Meanwhile, the forgery – a fraud that found its way into the president’s State of the Union message – is being quietly investigated by the FBI at the request of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The Robb-Silberman Commission, which investigated what went wrong with American intelligence in the run-up to the invasion, said it was unclear who forged the documents and why. It turned over classified “factual findings concerning the potential source of the forgeries” to the FBI.

What has happened to these findings is a Washington mystery.

<snip>

From the inception of the yellow-cake controversy, there have been reports that foreign intelligence sources were involved. Most attention has been focused on Italy’s intelligence service. Yet, why Italy would have wanted to plant such a forged document has never been explained. Suspicions that the Italians might have done so on request have flourished.

But a first-rate Western intelligence service could never have fallen for such amateurish forgeries, either.

Forgery is a crime, but what about failing to notice it when it leaps out at you like a snake? It took the U.S. intelligence community six months to evaluate the authenticity of the yellow-cake documents – time for a major failure of the intelligence system.

As for the forgeries, the Robb-Silberman Commission apparently has a well-founded suspicion whodunit. It turned that over to the FBI. The rest of us will have to wait.


John Hall is the senior Washington correspondent of Media General News Service. E-mail [e-mail].


http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050731/OPINION04/107310062/-1/OPINION02

[wli]

1. my guess is Ledeen and Ghorbanifar

[Starfury]

2. I agree... n/t

[klyon]

3. it is about time someone noticed

to many crimes so little time

KL

[jody]

4. The authors violated 18 USC 1001 used to imprison Martha Stewart.

TITLE 18 > PART I > CHAPTER 47 > § 1001. Statements or entries generally
QUOTE
(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully—
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;
shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.
(b) Subsection (a) does not apply to a party to a judicial proceeding, or that party’s counsel, for statements, representations, writings or documents submitted by such party or counsel to a judge or magistrate in that proceeding.
(c) With respect to any matter within the jurisdiction of the legislative branch, subsection (a) shall apply only to—
(1) administrative matters, including a claim for payment, a matter related to the procurement of property or services, personnel or employment practices, or support services, or a document required by law, rule, or regulation to be submitted to the Congress or any office or officer within the legislative branch; or
(2) any investigation or review, conducted pursuant to the authority of any committee, subcommittee, commission or office of the Congress, consistent with applicable rules of the House or Senate.
UNQUOTE