Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Il "nostro" Rocco Martino e l'uranio nigeriano

http://www.hillnews.com/marshall/092304.aspx
FBI could talk to source of forged Niger papers. I did
[by Josh Marshall]
Why haven't we found out yet who was behind the forged Niger-uranium
documents caper?
One big reason is that the FBI - which is supposed to be investigating the
case - has really never tried.
Back in March 2003, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), vice-chairman of the
Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, asked the FBI to investigate the
matter. It was on the basis of that supposed investigation that the
committee later decided not to look into anything about the forged documents
before they showed up at the U.S. Embassy in Rome in October 2002. (See Page
57 of the committee report.)
But, despite claims to the contrary, the FBI hasn't made any serious efforts
to find out who was behind the scam.
There are many reasons to believe that the FBI's investigation has been at
best perfunctory. But let me describe one of the clearest.
One of the obvious places to start such an investigation would be with
Elisabetta Burba, the Italian journalist who got copies of the documents and
later turned them over to the American Embassy in Rome.
The obvious question would be: Who gave you the documents?
FBI agents did do a cursory interview with Burba not long after Rockefeller
asked for an investigation. And they made a pro-forma request for her to
contact her source to see if some arrangement could be devised under which
they could speak with him.
But after that, they didn't follow up with her for months to find out what
the answer was. And when they did finally do so, it was mainly because one
agent was passing the matter on to someone else.
To this day, they've never made contact with the guy who tried to sell Burba
the documents.
One might speculate that Burba's just kept mum. And there's no way to
unravel the mystery of the guy's identity. But that's not even close to
true.
Here's why.
My colleagues and I have known the guy's name since late spring. And at
least three European intelligence agencies knew who he was well before we
found out. In fact, twice this summer we brought him to New York for
interviews.
Both times he traveled under his own name, Rocco Martino.
The first time was in June; the second time was in August. And it's the
second time that's more telling.
By the time we brought Martino to New York in early August, he had already
been identified by name in the Italian and the British press as the man who
tried to sell Burba the forged documents.
In fact, when we whisked him out of the country, he was already under very
active and conspicuous surveillance by Italian authorities in Rome. He flew
to New York under his own name and stayed for several days.
One of my colleagues and I actually had a friendly bet about whether FBI
agents would be waiting for Martino when he came through Customs in New
York, since his role at the center of the case and his name had just been
published in the Financial Times - a paper you can find on many street
corners in Washington, D.C.
I told my friend I didn't think they were even looking for him. And if they
were keeping tabs on him, I really doubted they wanted to make contact. He
was a hot potato. Everything we'd learned reporting on the Niger uranium
case told us that this was a story the U.S. government did not want to get
to the bottom of.
Needless to say, nothing happened.
Perhaps in Italy there might have been some jurisdictional issues that could
have made the bureau leery of questioning Martino. But if the case were
really a serious priority, you'd think they might have tried to make contact
with him when he showed up in New York right after his name had been
plastered across a bunch of European newspapers.
(The Italians were keeping a close eye on him as he departed. And through
leaks to the press in Italy, they let it be known that Martino had again
gone to the United States.)
But Martino came, spent several days in New York, and then left. And no one
from the FBI or any other American law-enforcement or intelligence agency
made any attempt to contact him in any way.
Nor have they done so since.
If the FBI is serious about getting to the bottom of this mystery, why haven
't they made more effort to talk to the guy at the center of it?

Both times he traveled under his own name, Rocco Martino.
Chiaramente, come al solito, di prove di simili cavolate non se ne vede
traccia :)
*LOL*
-Stefano

 
http://www.hillnews.com/marshall/092304.aspx
Solo una curiosità. Uranio del Niger o della Nigeria? A quanto ne so,
l'uranio sarebbe dovuto essere 'nigerino' (del Niger) non 'nigeriano' (della
Nigeria). Non voglio farne una questione lessicale, voglio capire la
supposta provenienza di quel famoso uranio.