Rocco Martino, born on September 20, 1938, in Tropea, Calabria, Italy, is an Italian secret agent and informant best known for fabricating and disseminating forged intelligence documents that contributed to the justification for the 2003 Iraq War. Working as a salesman by trade, Martino had connections within Italian intelligence circles, including the SISMI (Italian military intelligence service), and operated as a freelance informant trading information across Europe. He gained notoriety in the early 2000s for acquiring and selling forged papers suggesting that Saddam Hussein's Iraq was attempting to purchase yellowcake uranium from Niger—the 'Niger uranium forgeries' or 'yellowcake scandal.' These documents were first reported by Italian newspapers and passed to U.S. and British intelligence, influencing President George W. Bush's 2003 State of the Union address. Martino admitted in interviews that he obtained the documents from sources within Italian intelligence and sold them to journalist Elisabetta Burba of Panorama magazine in 2001. The forgeries were later exposed by the IAEA and U.S. investigations as false, sparking inquiries into how disinformation influenced policy. Martino claimed he was part of a broader disinformation effort but faced no formal charges. Post-scandal, he has lived a relatively low-profile life in Italy, occasionally providing commentary on intelligence matters. Critics condemn his actions as emblematic of flaws in pre-Iraq War intelligence gathering.