Loftus has been talking about this for 6+ months. The Niger story is, and always was, true.
I haven't heard anything about the tests that we were supposed to be running on the nuclear material we took from Al Tuaitha to Oak Ridge - testing it along side the stuff from Libya to see if the nuclear signature matches.
The Brits have been saying since May of last year they had other evidence than the forgeries. The Hutton Report confirms.
BTW, I find this Italian-meeting-in-Brussels story fishy too. Revenge on his Italian masters?
The story could be bogus. Here's the problem. We think the Italian Intel had the docs back in early 2002 and made reports about them. Then in late 2002 someone gave the docs to a journalist for "Panorama" who passed it to the American embassy in Rome. (Mention in the Senate Intel. Report)
Now read this:
"Giacomo said he regretted the hoax but had believed the documents were genuine when he passed them to intelligence contacts and a journalist."
And someone called him to go to the Niger embassy? That's how secret docs are passed?
Story is fishy. I think Josh Marshall caught wind of it a while back, and though I don't agree with him much, he did predict this story was weak, and I agree - so far.