The Hindu : Iraq dossier: Italian scribe's claim kicks up row

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 24, 2003

International

International

Iraq dossier: Italian scribe's claim kicks up row

By Vaiju Naravane

ROME JULY 23 . An Italian journalist has claimed that it was she, and not the country's military intelligence service (SISMI) that handed over a fraudulent dossier on Iraq to the U.S. intelligence officials at the American embassy in Rome, adding a further twist to an already super-charged and confused issue.

Her revelations and the questions they raise could prove to be another likely source of embarrassment to the Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi's right wing Government.

Elisabetta Burba, a political journalist with the newsweekly Panorama, part of Mr. Berlusconi's media empire, said that she was the person who supplied the U.S. diplomats with forged documents obtained "in October 2002 from a previously reliable source."

The documents in question, formed the basis of London and Washington's claims that Saddam Hussein tried to purchase nuclear materials from Niger and have sparked an international controversy on exactly how intelligence was used or "tarted up" to make the case against Iraq appear stronger than it really was. The White House has admitted that the use of the documents for the President Bush's State of the Union address was "a mistake," while the CIA Director, George Tenet, on Friday took responsibility for the inclusion of "an erroneous" allegation in the President's speech.

Ms. Burba said she had discounted the contents of the dossier and the weekly had decided not to run the story after a trip to Niger cast doubts on the veracity of its content. "I travelled personally and alone to Rome and handed them the file. No one ever mentioned it to me again. I can say that my source was not an agent of the military intelligence service, although I cannot reveal his identity," she told The Hindu by telephone.

The row over exactly who in Italy provided false documents to the U.S. and British secret services on alleged Iraqi uranium purchases from Niger grew more heated even as Mr. Berlusconi, on a visit to the U.S., basked in Mr. Bush's praise and gratitude for his unstinted support for the war in Iraq.

During a press call at Mr. Bush's Texas ranch where only his most favoured leaders have been invited, the U.S. President said defending freedom entailed costs and sacrifices and praised Mr. Berlusconi's "readiness to bear the burden with us."

Both leaders, however, studiously avoided any mention of the fraudulent Iraq dossier that Mr. Bush referred to in his State of the Union address in which he made his case for attacking Iraq. Italy finds itself at the epicentre of an international row over how it delivered false intelligence used by Britain and the U.S. in the now discredited arms dossier on Iraq. The role played by Italy's military intelligence service, the SISMI, is at the heart of the row.

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