Today’s LA Times story on the Niger forgeries contains the following passage …
The murky saga involves one Rocco Martino, an occasional Italian spy and businessman who initially peddled the documents. He has told reporters over the last few years that he obtained the papers through a contact at the Niger Embassy in Rome (which, incidentally, was burglarized in 2001) with the help of another officer from Italian military intelligence, and that he sold them to a French intelligence agency with which he occasionally traded.
Through his lawyer, Martino declined an interview this week. “The less I say, the better,” the lawyer, Giuseppe Placidi, quoted Martino as saying. The lawyer would only say that Martino, who was questioned by Italian prosecutors, did not realize the material was fake and did not obtain it from military intelligence.
Martino is a problematic figure. La Repubblica described him as a “failed carabiniere [policeman] and dishonest spy” and a “double-dealer” who plays many sides of every fence and was fired from his job in the Italian secret service.
There’s actually a bit more to it than this. There are year-old and as yet unbroadcast taped interviews with Martino in which he describes the arrangement with SISMI officer Antonio Nucera and a female SISMI asset who works at the Niger embassy in Rome. In addition, there are interviews with another party to scheme which confirm Nucera’s role. Thus, while Martino himself is what a lit prof might call an untrustworthy narrator, other evidence confirms his claims about SISMI involvement.
