Need more info. I'm very skeptical that the Bush admin would rely on one dubious source and vouch for it on such an important issue -- as is being implied.
I wonder what this independent verification is that Blair is referring to...
Investigators in Rome suspect that Mr Martino was first engaged by the French secret services five years ago, when he was asked to investigate rumours of illicit trafficking in uranium from Niger.
In other words, the rumors that uranium trafficking was going on in Niger preceded the forged documents. The French took it seriously enough that they investigated, hired this guy to prowl around and see what he could come up with.
This could be the case for a few reasons:
It could be at least one French intelligence official really was concerned and tried to find out more.
Or it could be the French wanted an investigation in order to figure out the source of the leaks and have it excised so the rumors would stop.
Or ... who knows. There's a reason for the concern since it turns out Libya was indeed obtaining uranium from Niger, in spite of the former Ambassador Wilson's proclamation that illicit trade couldn't occur because the security was too good.
The joke of it all is that Iraq's trade mission to Niger was not a secret, so I don't know why Bush bothered to credit British intel for information that is essentially public.
In 1999 Iraq sent Ambassador Zahawie to Niger to hold conversations. Zahawie is famous for advocating the development of nuclear weapons by Arab states. Since Niger is not known for many exports aside from uranium, since Iraq has previously bought uranium from Niger, its not difficult to draw conclusions.
Wilson claimed at one point that Baghdad Bob also made a trip to Niger, and Nigerien officials also claimed that they had been contacted by Iraqi businessmen.
Wilson, and Niger, claimed though that neither Niger nor France would ever be involved in illicit sales of uranium.
But of course, since Libya has given up its nuclear program, we now know that they were buying their uranium from Niger, and hence, France.
Why would France be investigating uranium sales they themselves would be involved in? The idea that they would be plugging leaks makes sense. The fake documents were handed over to the US by France, and then exposed as fakes by a French member of the IAEA. This had the effect of discrediting a story that was not only true but public. And it very nearly brought down Bush at a time that he was preparing a war that France very much wished to derail.
It doesn't take a long memory to recall that France had maybe a hundred billion dollars on the line in Iraq's oil industry, and most of the high tech weaponry our guys came up against was French built and of recent vintage, some of it shipped immediately prior to the invasion.
France is not our friend.