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Whatever the Italians would or would not do, the Bush Administration has been decidedly reluctant to disclose the record in this case. For example, TIME has learned that the National Security Agency has highly classified intercepts of international communications that -- at least in retrospect -- seem to be relevant. Neither these nor the CIA reports were disclosed to Drogoul's attorneys. The CIA is still dribbling out classified cables to Congress and the Justice Department. In addition, a month after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the Commerce Department sent Congress falsified records of licensed truck sales to Iraq. The trucks had originally been listed as "designed for military use." The falsified records changed that description to "commercial utility trucks."
Moreover, an intelligence source has told TIME that cables sent by the CIA station in Rome between September and November 1989 contain information suggesting B.N.L.-Rome did have knowledge that the Atlanta branch was an important conduit of huge loans to Iraq. One cable, for example, reports that when the Italian steel firm Danieli sought a loan from B.N.L.-Rome to build a steel mill in Iraq, the letter of credit was finally issued not by Rome but by Atlanta, although Danieli had no previous contact with that branch and although the amount exceeded B.N.L.-Atlanta's authorized limit for loans to Iraq. It is worth noting that this report resembles what Drogoul told U.S. investigators after the raid on B.N.L.-Atlanta.
On Oct. 5, Judge Shoob suggested that top officials in the departments of Justice, State and Agriculture, as well as those in the intelligence ( community, were trying "to shape this case." That's one view of all the foot dragging and bungling. Another comes from the Justice Department's Urgenson. "This case is radioactive," says he. "Anything you do is going to be criticized."