Iraq is firmly at the forefront of political debate in Italy with Berlusconi clearly stating that he disagreed with the war and the government having to deny recent accusations of involvement in the passing on of false documents to the US which purported to show an attempt by Saddam Hussein's regime to buy uranium in Africa. The accusations follow a series of investigative articles in the La Repubblica daily last week.
The articles alleged that Italy's military intelligence service SISMI (Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza MIlitare) handed the documents to the United States possibly under pressure from the Italian government. The documents, which accused Iraq of trying to buy up to 500 tons of uranium oxide or 'yellowcake' from Niger, were used by the US and Britain to help support the case for the 2003 toppling of the Iraqi strongman.
According to La Repubblica, the documents were forged in 2000 by a former Carabiniere policeman and ex-SISMI agent Rocco Martino for his own purposes with the help of contacts provided by a SISMI official and friend. The bogus papers later passed to Sismi which then handed
them on to pro-war officials in the US and London, the daily said.
It accused SISMI chief Nicolo Pollari of involvement, saying that he met with America's then-deputy national security advisor Stephen J. Hadley on September 9, 2002. The Italian parliament's intelligence watchdog committee Copaco is holding an inquiry into the allegations and will question Pollari on November 3.
Berlusconi issued a statement of support for Pollari on Sunday, saying that "I have always appreciated the work Pollari has done at SISMI and continue to do so."The government has repeatedly rejected La Repubblica's allegations, blasting them as "unfounded and inexact" and
categorically denying any involvement in the case either on the part of the government or SISMI .
In a Saturday statement, the government said the daily's report on the alleged Hadley-Pollari meeting was "totally false". It said a meeting took place on September 9 2002 between Pollari and then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice with Hadley present as part of the US delegation.
"The dialogue was exclusively between Condoleezza Rice and Pollari. The other people present witnessed the talks but did not speak themselves," the statement said. "There was no reference, either direct or indirect, to the problems regarding the Iraq-Niger issue," it said. US and British allegations that Saddam Hussein sought to buy uranium for his nuclear weapons programme from Niger was used by the two allies to help support their case for waging war on Iraq.
Bush cited the uranium deal in his State of the Union address in January 2003, saying it was evidence that Saddam Hussein was trying to develop weapons of mass destruction. The US admitted after the war that the uranium claim was false and Hadley took the blame for including it in Bush's speech.
But the claim was also exposed as bogus by US diplomat Joseph Wilson, who criticised Washington's prewar intelligence on Iraq. Wilson is the husband of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame, whose identity was later leaked, triggering a scandal which led to last week's indictment of US Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby.
