Calling DU research team! Could be BIG

[DrBB]

Have we all read TPM this morning? Marshall returns to the intriguing and underexamined question of who faked the Niger documents. Points out that it was Cheney who originally brought the story to his regular CIA briefing, not the other way around. Then looks at Sy Hersh's recent account of the story, and the Italian intel connection:

Elisabetta Burba, a reporter for Panorama, a glossy Italian weekly owned by the publishing empire of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, received a telephone call from an Italian businessman and security consultant whom she believed to have once been connected to Italian intelligence. He told her that he had information connecting Saddam Hussein to the purchase of uranium in Africa. She considered the informant credible. In 1995, when she worked for the magazine Epoca, he had provided her with detailed information, apparently from Western intelligence sources, for articles she published dealing with the peace process in Bosnia and with an Islamic charity that was linked to international terrorism. The information, some of it in English, proved to be accurate.

He then winds up with this enticing teaser:

Who’s this “Italian businessman and security consultant”? Who’s he do his security consulting for? Any associations to any folks with names we know? Any connections to noteworthy figures in the United States?

More on this to come.

So here's the posish, I think: Josh has got a name in mind--he's come across something, or figured out enough to ask somebody, whatever, but he's got a name in mind. He just doesn't have the goods yet to go public--that's a serious matter for a pro journalist. BUT...

Can WE figure it out? I think we're looking for someone who's name would already be in the BFEE research archives. I'm not intimately familiar enough with them to have any initial traction here. But I bet there are some dedicated BFEE sleuths here who might get a tingle. The only breath of a clue I've got is my reason for thinking it's someone who's trail will turn up in the BFEE realm, to wit: Sy Hersh's http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?031027fa_fact">article touches on the persistent rumor within CIA circles that the documents were a CIA plant, one intended to appeal to Cheney while being easily debunked by anyone with even a rudimentary clue in genuine intel analysis--i.e., it was an attempt by CIA to discredit Cheney. This could be a red herring, of course, and the ramifications are complicated to say the least. N.b., e.g. the persistent indications that Poppy and his circle (wh/obviously includes lots of CIA/BFEE types) are adamantly opposed to the neocon Iraq policy.

But anyway, such speculation aside, who is this guy? I bet we could turn up a name to fit the profile before Marshall goes public. Be fun to try, anyway....

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

1. My guess would be Michael Ledeen

is the connection to the Italian businessman / security consultant. I'm basing this solely on the weird stuff he was involved in in Italy during the seventies & the continuing spillout from the whole P2 lodge / Roberto Calvi / etc madness, and the fact that the press has reported that he's been back in touch with Manucher Ghorbanifar re "regime change" preparations in Iran.

I read on here yesturday as well that the AEI is setting up shop in Italy, where I'm sure Berlusconi will give them five-star treatment!

(on edit, the Bender Associates profile - link below) says that he's currently writing a book on Naples. Tenuous, interesting to know that he's kept up his Italian interests!)

http://www.benadorassociates.com/ledeen.php

Also, for those not familiar with Ledeen, here's a good article by Jim Lobe:

http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/8249

[Nlighten1]

2. Well

What I have found so far isn't a name but apparently this person who started the Niger story has ties to American Intelligence. It may be possible that this story was planted by the Administration.

This was originally reported by Sy Hersh.

[DrBB]

4. Actually, Hersh reports a rumor within CIA

...that it was disgruntled CIA agents themselves who planted it, in an effort to discredit the neocons in general and Cheney in particular.

[Nlighten1]

3. Can we get Elisabetta Burba's email address?

[Octafish]

5. Propaganda 2 + Operation GLADIO

Were meant to keep Capital alive in the event of a commie takeover of Europa as the original "stay-behinds." Well, that didn't happen, although they must seem useful in these days of pre-emptive class warfare...

P-2 Backgrounder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P2

P-2 Listing

http://www.amnistia.net/news/gelli/lesnoms.htm

Operation GLADIO

http://www.copi.com/articles/guyatt/gladio.html

Then, there's Henry Kissinger who seems to have represented the business interests of the BFEE for quite some time...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Henry_A._Kissinger

EDIT: Typo in title -- must learn to use Preview button otto-maticatically. EDIT 2: SOSO.

[bobbieinok]

7. who puts out copi?

This article contains what I remember reading years ago about Opus Dei involvement in the Vatican bank scandal of the 80s. I couldn't find this info at the standard anti Opus Dei sites.

I want to pass this obviously negative info about OD to people who aren't opposed to a conservative 'christian' worldview, which is all I was able to find earlier.

[Octafish]

12. Seems like REAL good people.

From memory and conjecture: I thought these guys were friends with Peter Dale Scott. Seems his group has expanded.

http://www.copi.com/about.htm

[ElsewheresDaughter]

6. i betcha you'll find him on the Carlyle Group Board

[salin]

8. What about (wild speculation) Adnan Kashogi?

He always seems to be in the background to give a good push for the bushboys when they want one. As an arms import/exporter (oh right, he is now legitimate :eyes: ) he would have access to the rumour mill - and connections to get the needed "evidence" by the bushies (ala.. if only we has PROOF that Saddam was a bigger threat than OBL we could move away from that pesky Afghanistan situation and onto the real glory of Iraq....) and to get said evidence into the hands of another business associate or two... and then make sure that it floats over to another source or two that would likely make it into the intel community.

Just a wild thought.

[DrBB]

9. A "usual suspect." But we've got a more specific description

...to wit: "Italian Businessman and security consultant." Lots of M.E suspects in the BFEE rogue's gallery, but that's why I thought an Italian might stick out....

[Octafish]

19. Berlusconi said to have told Smirko @ yellowcake -- personally.

From a cached GOOGLE posting:

EXCERPT...

Thanks to alert reader General Glut, who pointed out that the French newspaper Le Monde is reporting that members of the Sismi are claiming the Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi personally hawked the fraudulent Niger claim to President Bush a mere three days before the State of the Union where he aired the claim:

"According to certain members of Sismi , writes the newspaper , it was Silvio Berlusconi himself who revived the false dossier during a telephone conversation with George Bush, three days before it was mentioned in the State of the Union address".

Translation by General Glut

CONTINUED with bits about Berlusconi Crawford visit...

http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:_27Tmowm7w8J:www.likelystory.net/archives/000075.html+scooter+libby+%2B+berlusconi&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

[chiburb]

10. Grover Norquist?

No BFEE expert here, just a guess from this:

"In 1995, when she worked for the magazine Epoca, he had provided her with detailed information, apparently from Western intelligence sources, for articles she published dealing with the peace process in Bosnia and with an Islamic charity that was linked to international terrorism. "

[NoKingGeorge]

11. A Cheney operative.

As I follow this it seems Cheney introduced the information to the CIA. I speculate that he commisioned the documents that back up his information. The CIA, having been informed by Cheney that documents exist, get the documents and start their analysis.

[msmcghee]

14. This is a fascinating thread . . .

. . but wouldn't Cheney do a better forgery - as in bulletproof ?

Maybe I'm missing something here.

:donut:

[fizzana]

20. Judging by the way they've handled everything else I wouldn't

expect them to do a good job with forging the documents.

[blm]

13. Check out Maichael Ledeen's connection to Berlusconi

or other Italian media. Ledeen was the operative for the BFEE who was their top disinformation man - story planter in other countries. He specialized in Latin American countries throughout the 70s and 80s. I wouldn't doubt that the BFEE would use someone they trusted implicitly for this job.

[BurtWorm]

15. A couple of Italians on Carlyle's BoD have physics degrees

Could mean nothing:


Edoardo Lanzavecchia
Managing Director
Milan, Italy


Industry : Tech & Business Svs


Edoardo Lanzavecchia is a Managing Director focused on European buyout opportunities. He is based in Milan.

Prior to joining Carlyle in February 1998, Mr. Lanzavecchia was a Partner at SO.PA.F. SpA, a leading Italian merchant bank. He was instrumental in managing the firm’s direct private equity investments, as well as its two private equity partnerships: Invest Equity Partners BV and General Electric and SO.PA.F. Equity Partners BV. He was a strategic consultant with The Mac Group where he handled a variety of assignments in civil engineering, insurance, food and furniture. In the earlier part of his career, he worked at ABB in the energy division and as a researcher in the Plasma Physics Laboratory of CNR.

Mr. Lanzavecchia received a degree in nuclear engineering from Politecnico of Milan and his M.B.A. from Bocconi University in Milan.

Mr. Lanzavecchia is on the Board of Directors of Riello and Tecnoforge Group.


Roberto De Rossi
Director
Milan, Italy

Fund : Europe Buyout

Industry : Generalist


Roberto De Rossi is a Director focused on European buyout and turnaround opportunities. He is based in Milan.

Prior to joining Carlyle, Mr. De Rossi worked with Bain, Cuneo & Associati and KPMG Consulting as Senior Manager. He also worked with Monitor Spa and Andersen Consulting.

Mr. De Rossi earned an M.B.A. from the Bocconi Univeristy in Milan and a degree in Physics from La Sapienza University in Rome in 1987.

[BurtWorm]

16. Another Italian affiliated with Carlyle

ENRICO "CHICCO" TESTA



Born on January, 1952 in Bergamo. He holds a master in Philosophie at the University of Milan (1976).

Enrico Testa was national secretary and subsequently president of the Italian environmental association Legambiente from 1980 to 1987. He was a member of the Italian Parliament from 1987 to 1994. From 1994 to 1996, Mr. Testa was chairman of ACEA (the municipal utility company of Rome) and of CISPEL (the Italian federation of local public-sector utility companies), as well as a member of CNEL (the National Council for the Economy and Labor). Since 1996, he has been the President of Enel, and a member of the Board of Directors at WIND S.p.A. (telecommunications company whose partners are: ENEL 56,63%, France Telecom 43,37%). Other positions inside the ENEL holding include: Chairman of Elettroambiente S.p.A. (waste-to-energy company), Chairman of Conphoebus S.p.A. (a company working in technological and scientific research and engineering), Chairman of Sfera S.p.A. (training company) and Member of the Board of Directors at SEI S.p.A. (Enel's real estate company).

Other activities

- Member of the European Advisory Board of "The Carlyle Group"
- Member of the Board od Directors of "Lloyd Adriatico" (Insurance Company)
- Member of the Board of Directors of "Riello SpA" (Burners and Heat-Generation Equipment)
- Vice President of O.M.E., organization of the major energy companies in the Mediterranean basin.
- Member of E7 (Energy Seven), organization of the most important electric utilities of the G7 Countries.
- Member of the Scientific Committee of the European Design Institute He is acting president of the Roma Volleyball team in the first division of the Italian volleyball league.

[xultar]

17. That's why Cheny is on the DL

Cuz the min he shows his fat face the media is gonna be all over him like stink on shit.

You know what...maybe they won't since they are all henpecked by the shrub Administration

[TacticalPeek]

18. The link to Hersh's article needs fixin: too much http.

Fascinating speculation, and a crucial issue. Crucial, as in Unka Dick went down to the cruxroads and did a deal with the devil.

Devil, as in 'what's my name?'.

:evilgrin:

[DrBB]

21. Dang--cut-and-paste foils me agin! Here's correct one

An http too far--always happens when I cut-and-paste. Too late to change the original post. Here's the fixed link.

[Gunit_Sangh]

22. Who did it?

I read on a blog a few months ago (sorry I don't remember where or when) that it is possible that the source of these documents was an iraqi defector who had access to the original documents when iraq purchased yellowcake from Nigeria in the early 80's.

If this is true, that would explain why old letterheads and old signatures was used on several of the documents. It would also explain why the forgeries were so inept .. if the forgeries were made by any major intellegence agency, they would have been better.

Obviously, this was pure speculation. If an iraqi defector actually did the forgeries, then it is possible that they came thru Chalabi's organization. That doesn't explain how the forgeries got to the reporter in Italy. My personal opinion is that Chalabi's organization probably could NOT have done that on their own, which means they had to have had some help from someone .. Cheney's OSP maybe?

[TacticalPeek]

23. And speaking of foreign troublemakers,

remember that Brit intel (or some faction thereof) claims (apparently) to have info from a country other than the US 'confirming' Iraqi purchase attempts in Africa. But if they told us who, they'd have to kill us. They might not need to, since we'd probably die of laughter.

I guess they mean Italy? Israel? Russia? Cuba?

:)

[Oilwellian]

24. I think Burba's opinion of the forged document was interesting

<snip>
Corriere della Sera, an Italian daily, quoted Elisabetta Burba as saying her source "in the past proved to be reliable." Burba, who writes for the weekly Panorama, refused to reveal her source.

"I realized that this could be a worldwide scoop, but that's exactly why I was very worried," Burba was quoted as saying. "If it turned out to be a hoax and I published it, I would have ended my career."

<snip>

Corriere della Sera quoted the journalist as saying she went to Niger to try to check out the authenticity of the documents. Burba told the paper that she was suspicious because the documents spoke of such a large amount of uranium — 500 tons — and were short on details on how it would be transported and arrangements for final delivery.

On her return, she said, she told Panorama's top editor that "the story seemed fake to me." After discussions at the magazine, which is owned by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Burba brought the documents to the U.S. Embassy.

"I went by myself and give them the dossier. No one said anything more to me, and in any case the decision not to publish it was already taken — with no further way to check out the reliability of those papers, we chose not to risk" it, she said.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0720-08.htm

So even the journalist who received the forged document chose not to publish the information. :eyes:

[TacticalPeek]

25. Her thinking wouldn't make sense to the American press/misadministration.

"If it turned out to be a hoax and I published it, I would have ended my career."

It WAS a hoax, and Cheney STILL stands by it. I guess integrity is an 'old Europe' value.