Was Rocco Martino disseminating the forgeries on behalf of the French Government, as insinuated by the Italian Government?
NO. The evidence shows that he was working partly for the French Government but only as a source for them. He wasn’t hired by the French to disseminate his materials to other agencies or groups. He was trying to sell them the information. Also, this claim deliberately obscures the fact that the French intelligence was not the source of the CIA’s first three Niger intel reports, it was SISMI. Laura Rozen at War and Piece has written a nice summary on this (emphasis mine): A few people have sent me the recent Sunday Telegraph story about the Italian Niger docs middle man, Rocco Martino, asking for comment. First off, let me make clear that I am analyzing only already published articles here. Secondly, let me focus for the moment instead on a synopsis of a related story, from the Italian paper, Messaggero, that came out September 18, 2004 “La spia ritratta: innocenti i servizi italiani”: Rocco Martino has been interrogated by the magistrate Franco Ionta, assisted by his attorney Giuseppe
