Just a word or two before we get lost in the Libby Trial, the IG Report on Feith, and the Administration’s Iran build-up [insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results]. When it’s all said and done, everything right now is about the Niger Forgeries. Libby’s on trial for covering up a leak – a leak to discredit a man who went to Niger to see about their selling Yellowcake Uranium to Iraq. Those allegations were false. They were based on a set of forged documents put together by a shady Italian guy, Rocco, who was just out to make a buck. The French recognized that they were forgeries and dropped them cold.
Later, they resurfaced via the Italian Secret Service and became the basis for our going to war with Iraq. The Italians were up to something in their dealing with these documents. They pushed them, and seemed to be hiding the parts that clearly showed that they were bogus. The C.I.A. acted oddly. They ignored them, but were slow to debunk them. Both the British and our Administration kept them alive way beyond reason.
And there’s something really murky. Michael Ledeen, arch neoconservative and Iran-Contra broker was in Italy with people from Douglas Feith’s OSP doing who-knows-what not long before these documents resurfaced. His companion, Larry Franklin, of Feith’s office was later convicted of passing intelligence to Israel. Many believe Ledeen was acting on our behalf and had something to do with these documents resurfacing.
With Cheney, Libby, Feith, and Iran all over our front pages, it’s time to open The Niger Gate and find out what really happened. I nominate Patrick Fitzgerald and eriposte [of the left coaster] to take on the job, full time, with emptywheel [of The Next Hurrah] as a consultant…
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