Italian Journalist Says She Gave US Uranium Info

AP ^ | July 19, 2003

[nwrep]

ROME - A journalist for an Italian news magazine has come forward, saying it was she who turned over to U.S. diplomats some documents purportedly showing that Iraq (news - web sites) wanted to buy uranium from Niger. The documents turned out to be forgeries.

In an interview published Saturday, Corriere della Sera, a leading Italian daily, quoted Elisabetta Burba as saying her source "in the past proved to be reliable." The journalist, who writes for the weekly Panorama, refused to reveal her source.

[Brian Mosely]

quoted Elisabetta Burba as saying her source "in the past proved to be reliable."

Doesn't this sound just like what happened to Capital Hill Blue?

[Chad Fairbanks]

In an interview published Saturday, Corriere della Sera, a leading Italian daily, quoted Elisabetta Burba as saying her source "in the past proved to be reliable." The journalist, who writes for the weekly Panorama, refused to reveal her source

Man, that Terrance J. Wilkinson guy sure got around!

[Mitchell]

... quoted Elisabetta Burba as saying her source "in the past proved to be reliable."

I wonder if this is "Terrance Wilkinson" again, Doug Thompson's Capitol Hill Blue source? The whole thing sounds similar.

[Destro]

This is not new news. Everyone knew it originated with her. It was widely published and the debunked. Look the Bush WH was a little to eager and they got sloppy. Incompetent? Yes! Liars on this issue? Not on purpose.

[Destro]

This is not new news. Everyone knew it originated with her. It was widely published and the debunked. Look the Bush WH was a little too eager and they got sloppy. Incompetent? Yes! Liars on this issue? Not on purpose.

[Reagan Man]

Italian Journalist Says She Gave US Uranium Info

The plot thickens. LOL

[Mitchell]

You two were a little faster hitting that Post button! But we all seem to have had the same immediate reaction.

[HAL9000]

You only posted two paragraphs of the article?

This is becoming an annoying trend: unnecessary excerpting - with no indication that it is an excerpt of the full article.

We need to start hitting the Abuse button over this problem.

[jriemer]

Whooping It Up In Beirut, even Christians celebrated the atrocity (911) BY ELISABETTA BURBA in the WSJ.COM

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Yes!!!!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

ROME - A journalist for an Italian news magazine has come forward, saying it was she who turned over to U.S. diplomats some documents purportedly showing that Iraq (news - web sites) wanted to buy uranium from Niger. The documents turned out to be forgeries.

In an interview published Saturday, Corriere della Sera, a leading Italian daily, quoted Elisabetta Burba as saying her source "in the past proved to be reliable." The journalist, who writes for the weekly Panorama, refused to reveal her source.

"I realized that this could be a worldwide scoop, but that's exactly why I was very worried," Burba was quoted as saying. "If it turned out to be a hoax, and I published it, I would have ended my career."

The documents, later declared by experts to be forgeries, served as part of the basis for President Bush (news - web sites)'s assertion in his State of Union address in January that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was trying to get hold of material that could be used for nuclear weapons.

Bush attributed the information to the British government. Both the Bush administration and that of British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) have been under growing fire for using flawed intelligence to justify going to war against Iraq.

It has been previously reported that the U.S. Embassy in Rome received the documents from a journalist. The documents were shown to CIA (news - web sites) personnel in Rome and sent to State Department headquarters in Washington.

Corriere della Sera quoted the journalist as saying she went to Niger to try to check out the authenticity of the documents. Burba told the paper she was suspicious because the documents spoke of such a large amount of uranium — 500 tons — and were short on details on how the uranium would be transported and arrangements for final delivery.

After her return from Africa, she said she told Panorama's top editor "the story seemed fake to me." After discussions at the magazine, one of the publications in Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi's media empire, Burba brought the documents to the U.S. Embassy.

"I went by myself and give them the dossier. No one said anything more to me and in any case the decision not to publish it was already taken — with no further way to check out the reliability of those papers, we chose not to risk. I informed my source that I wasn't going to write anything and for me that affair was forgotten," Burba was quoted as saying.

There was no answer at Burba's home Saturday. Offices of Panorama were closed for the weekend.

[concerned about politics]

Too many people are fessing up. The Demoncraps must be in a real tizzy. They'll be demanding the whole world be impeached pretty soon!

[BonnieJ]

How many here think this whole uranium, 16-word "story" will still be with us in August?

I think it's already subsiding. They are branching off from the original allegations, trying to broaden it.
That is always a sign with these "Bush scandals" that they are on their way out and failed to connect the way they'd hoped.

[Dog]

You all need to read this article..

Here!

One rarely has to wait long to enjoy those moments when blue chip publications print the worst sort of hogwash. Such was the case last week when the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal Web site published a commentary by one Elisabetta Burba, an Italian lady who, we were warned, is a journalist.

[1rudeboy]

This story is important enough to be posted in its entirety.

_____
ROME - A journalist for an Italian news magazine has come forward, saying it was she who turned over to U.S. diplomats some documents purportedly showing that Iraq (news - web sites) wanted to buy uranium from Niger. The documents turned out to be forgeries.

In an interview published Saturday, Corriere della Sera, a leading Italian daily, quoted Elisabetta Burba as saying her source "in the past proved to be reliable." The journalist, who writes for the weekly Panorama, refused to reveal her source.

"I realized that this could be a worldwide scoop, but that's exactly why I was very worried," Burba was quoted as saying. "If it turned out to be a hoax, and I published it, I would have ended my career."

The documents, later declared by experts to be forgeries, served as part of the basis for President Bush (news - web sites)'s assertion in his State of Union address in January that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) was trying to get hold of material that could be used for nuclear weapons.

Bush attributed the information to the British government. Both the Bush administration and that of British Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) have been under growing fire for using flawed intelligence to justify going to war against Iraq.

It has been previously reported that the U.S. Embassy in Rome received the documents from a journalist. The documents were shown to CIA (news - web sites) personnel in Rome and sent to State Department headquarters in Washington.

Corriere della Sera quoted the journalist as saying she went to Niger to try to check out the authenticity of the documents. Burba told the paper she was suspicious because the documents spoke of such a large amount of uranium — 500 tons — and were short on details on how the uranium would be transported and arrangements for final delivery.

After her return from Africa, she said she told Panorama's top editor "the story seemed fake to me." After discussions at the magazine, one of the publications in Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi's media empire, Burba brought the documents to the U.S. Embassy.

"I went by myself and give them the dossier. No one said anything more to me and in any case the decision not to publish it was already taken — with no further way to check out the reliability of those papers, we chose not to risk. I informed my source that I wasn't going to write anything and for me that affair was forgotten," Burba was quoted as saying.

There was no answer at Burba's home Saturday. Offices of Panorama were closed for the weekend.

[DoughtyOne]

AMEN!  Every excerpted article is an article
that will die just a few days after posting.

Folks, if you don't have the patience to post
an article fully, please ask someone else to
post it for you.

The articles on this forum are the only things
that document what is taking place in this world.
If you don't provide a means for us to go back
and look at what took place around a certain
time period, you have essentially destroyed our
historical vision.

PLEASE STOP excerpting unless it's from a
source we are prevented from posting in full.

Thank you.

[Mo1]

"I realized that this could be a worldwide scoop, but that's exactly why I was very worried," Burba was quoted as saying. "If it turned out to be a hoax, and I published it, I would have ended my career."

When has a reporter worried about false information?

[Mo1]

That was interesting .. thanks Dog

[sam_paine]

I agree, but let you get just one vicious tongue lashing from the Admin Moderator for posting a full article that MUST be excerpted, and whoaa doggy. You'll post short snippets too.