Report: Italians probably issued nuclear forgeries

MI6 was probably handed the forged documents that appeared to show Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium in Africa by Italian intelligence agents, it was reported today.

The allegation was used by both Britain and the United States as evidence of the threat from the Iraqi dictator’s nuclear ambitions. The White House has since retracted the claim, but Britain is standing firm.

The documents, which were reportedly forged by a diplomat working at Niger’s embassy in Rome and then sold to the Italians for “a few thousand dollars”, were denounced as fakes by the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency.

The Italian newspaper La Repubblica said today that they were probably handed to British officials during meetings in London.

It quoted a source from Sismi, the Italian military intelligence service, as saying that in late 2001 or early 2002, M16 obtained the documents.

The source implied that Italian agents had given them to the British.

“There were several meetings, at a higher level, almost always in London,” the source said.

“Despite this positive climate, we don’t know if it were the English who passed on that stuff to the CIA. It is rather probable.”

Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has said Italy “never, never” gave documents about the uranium interest to other nations’ intelligence services.

The Sismi source told La Repubblica that the Italian Foreign Ministry had raised “strong objections” and “protests” about the information provided by Italian intelligence.

La Repubblica also linked a theft at Niger’s embassy in Rome during the 2001 New Year’s holiday to the affair.

Only a watch and three small bottles of perfume were taken, but drawers and cupboards had been ransacked, the newspaper said. It did not elaborate on how the incidents could be connected.