CAMERA Letter Published in Providence Journal

Nutty ‘conspiracy’ slurs Israel again

In his May 30 letter, P. Joseph Beaulieu says that Israeli agents stole seals and stationery from the embassy of Niger in Rome: “Widely unreported in this country was the fact that Israeli Mossad agents were responsible for the burglary at the Niger Embassy in Rome, pilfering embassy seals and stationery.” (“Yellowcake was an Israeli plot”).

This “fact” was widely unreported here for a good reason: Like the conspiracy theories linking Israel to the 9/11 attacks, the London subway bombings, the death of Princess Diana and so on, there is no evidence to support this absurd allegation.

Nor was the “fact” widely reported outside of this country. A detailed investigative report in Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper, for example, fingered a freelance Italian intelligence operative named Rocco Martino for the theft at the Niger embassy. This report was cited in the British Guardian and many other newspapers worldwide.

We assume The Journal’s standards prevent the newspaper from publishing letters asserting that Israel perpetrated the 9/11 and the London attacks. By extension, we assume this letter blaming Israel for the burglary of the embassy of Niger and the yellowcake forgery somehow managed to slip past the newspaper’s fact-checking. That being the case, the error should be corrected for the record.

GILEAD INI

Boston

The writer is senior research analyst for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle Eastern Reporting in America.

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