My 2 cents

posted by The Vidiot @ 7:59 PM Permalink

I thought Micheal Ledeen had something to do with the Niger Forgeries. But, according to the UK's Sunday Times, it was 2 employees at the Niger embassy in Rome.

Excerpt: According to Nato sources, the investigation has evidence that Niger’s consul and its ambassador’s personal assistant faked a contract to show Saddam Hussein had bought uranium ore from the impoverished west African country.

But my question is, who did they forge them for?? Berslesconi has been implicated in the past, as well as Steven Hadley.

The Times article says:

Excerpt: In the autumn of 2002, Martino passed the documents allegedly faked by Zakariaou and Montini to an Italian journalist. She then took them to the American embassy and they were passed on to Washington.

My issue is: where did they get the proper information to insert into the forgery? how did they know what to say? It was just a couple of people in the embassy. Who told them what was needed?

Hadley met with Pollari, head of SISME on 9/9/2002

Excerpt: La Repubblica also quotes a Bush administration official saying, "I can confirm that on September 9, 2002, General Nicolo Pollari met Stephen Hadley."

And according to Josh Marshall the papers surfaced a month later.

Excerpt: It was only much later, in October 2002, that the Niger forgeries themselves surfaced in Rome and made their way into U.S. government hands.

What the article in the Times fails to discuss is where did the forgers get their information? Who did they think they were going to sell it to?

I think Hadley went there, told SISME what he wanted, SISME sent the skankiest to get them done, then funneled them to the journalist, Ms. Burba. (Who, as an aside, worked at the same publication that Micheal Ledeen had done some work for in the past. Sorry, can't find the link.)

So, who did the forgery is kind of a non sequiter. But who they were doing it for, now THAT'S something.