Regarding the documents stolen from the Niger Embassy in Rome, Italy: “The letters were obviously a blend of several genuine older documents, possibly obtained during the earlier break-in [on January 2, 2001], which were used to masquerade the counterfeit newer ones. The purpose of the phony documents was to create the impression that the true purpose of the Iraqi ambassador’s trip to Niger in 1999 was to secretly arrange a large shipment of uranium to Iraq in 2000 and that he may have had something to do with the attacks of 9/11. Both were exactly what the Bush administration was trying to convey to the American public.”
– James Bamford, A Pretext for War, Pages 299, 302