More on today’s installment of the La Repubblica series. This is a very rough translation of one passage from today’s piece. The reference to the ‘Atlantic Monthly’ actually refers to two reporters from the Washington Monthly (that’s small magazine publicity for you), then pursuing the Niger forgeries story …
Pollari makes his move in the summer of 2004. Usually discreet, he suddenly becomes eloquent. He sits down at his desk behind a pile of papers and documents. As he tells Repubblica (on August 5, 2004): âI donât trust anybody. I want to read the documents by myselfâ. He looks like heâs having a
difficult time. He feels the American reporters of the Atlantic Monthly on his neck. He reads a request for an interview posted by the American network CBS at the Italian embassy in Washington. âWhat do they want from me? Whoâs informing them? The CIA? The FBI?â. He knows that Rocco Martino was approached by the producers at 60 Minutes and he fears, as a personal catastrophe, what the man could tell in front of their microphones.Now Pollari needs a way out of that mess, and he thinks heâs found it. He tells Repubblica âIt was the French of the DGSE to cheat the Americans. We have nothing to do with itâ. He takes out a power-point document that should prove the involvement of the French in the Niger affair. It never looks convincing. And time will prove that the French lead was completely unfounded.
To review the original Italian, see the article here at the La Repubblica website.
