Rocco Martino

Rocco Martino (born September 20, 1938) is an Italian secret agent. He was born in Tropea, province of Catanzaro.

He played a major role in the fabrication and the dissemination of the Yellowcake Forgery, when he approached CIA Rome station chief Jeffrey W. Castelli with documents on Niger government letterhead describing secret plans for the sale of uranium to Iraq. Reportedly, Castelli dismissed the documents right off as forgeries, and never bothered passing them to Langley.

Although claiming to be an intelligence/disinformation conduit on his own account, it is likely Martino was deliberately deployed as a double agent by SISMI, Italian military intelligence, originally to spy on the French.

References

* [http://www.repubblica.it/2005/j/sezioni/esteri/iraq69/sismicia/sismicia.html "Doppiogiochisti e dilettanti, tutti gli italiani del Nigergate"] by Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe D'Avanzo, "La Repubblica", October 24, 2005, retrieved October 24, 2005.
* Barton Gellman, " [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/29/AR2005102901478_2.html A Leak, then a Deluge] ", The Washington Post, October 25, 2005