Talking Points Memo: The FBI and The Forged Documents

(November 07, 2005 -- 12:45 AM EDT)

Here's a snippet from an Isikoff and Hosenball Newsweek update on the Niger-Uranium story and the FBI's curiously unthorough investigation.

The FBI ended a two-and-a-half-year probe into the Niger uranium documents without resolving a key mystery: who forged papers used to bolster President Bush's case for war in Iraq? The bureau announced that the documents, purportedly showing attempts by Saddam Hussein's government to purchase yellowcake uranium, were concocted for financial gain rather than to influence U.S. foreign policy ... But a senior bureau official, requesting anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity, told NEWSWEEK the FBI never interviewed Rocco Martino, the Italian businessman who provided the documents to SISMI. Because there was no apparent violation of U.S. law, the bureau couldn't compel him to talk—even though he twice visited the United States last year to be interviewed by CBS's "60 Minutes."

Is that really how it is? Please.