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As anticipation built in Washington about potential indictments -- and what it would mean for a Bush administration beset by low approval ratings, the Iraq war and a controversial Supreme Court nomination -- a related problem was brewing in Italy over how the Niger allegations made their way into the intelligence stream.
Italian parliamentary officials announced that the head of Italy's military secret service, the SISMI intelligence agency, would be questioned next month about allegations that his agency gave the disputed documents to the United States and Britain, an Associated Press report said. A spokeswoman said Nicolo Pollari, the agency's director, asked to be questioned after reports this week in Italy's La Repubblica newspaper claiming that SISMI sent the CIA and U.S. and British officials information that it knew was forged.
The newspaper reported that Pollari met at the White House on Sept. 9, 2002, with then-deputy national security advisor Stephen J. Hadley. The Niger claims surfaced shortly thereafter. A spokesman for Hadley, now the national security advisor, confirmed that the meeting took place but declined to say what was discussed.
Hadley played a prominent role in the controversy over Bush's claims in his State of the Union address. He took responsibility for inserting into the speech the famous 16 words that laid out the allegations.
those forged documents were planted as a poison pill to discredit what was otherwise a valid story - that's why the Brits never backed off from the Niger uranium claim. that the documents were forged is not in question, they were - its how and why they got into the intel stream that is the question.