Sorry I didn't have time to format the links, I have to run an errand, but wanted to get this info out. Clarridge was fingered by the Italians in the uranium forgery, according to Larry Johnson and Vincent Cannistraro. Seems Cannistraro and Clarridge go back a ways. Also, Cannistraro was in Rome in Nov 2001 according to that poster, so he has alot of nerve claiming it was Ledeen just because Ledeen had a meeting in Dec 2001. Sure wish I could find the exact date that Rocco Martino got the forgery in hand, all I can find is "late 2001". Will follow up when I get back.The first Niger Embassy break in was on January 02, the second on January 31, both in 2001, way before Ledeen went there:
http://bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/bulletin/EdDesk.nsf/0/a0f101466d6da341ca256d6b000ae3cc?OpenDocument
Rocco Martino received the forged documents in "late 2001". That makes Cannistraro just as suspicious as Ledeen if the dates of his visit to Rome are correct. Larry Johnson is a known liar and the Italians issued a press statement yesterday that they were not involved in the forgeries:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1509708/posts
This is also backed up by Martino, who said he was employed by the French:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1509091/posts
Ledeen has gone public and denied involvement:
I have absolutely no connection to the Niger documents, have never even seen them. I did not work on them, never handled them, know virtually nothing about them, don't think I ever wrote or said anything about the subject. I have left a voice mail for Cannistraro suggesting he should apologize and retract right away. I think you should get back to him and ask him if he didn't just make it up, or was repeating gossip. There can be no credible evidence for the claim, and you will not wish to be associated with it, I'm sure.
And you should also notice that you and Cannistraro have misspelled the acronym for the Italian Military Intelligence Service. It's SISMI not SISME. A good Italian like Cannistraro should at least know that!
Michael Ledeen
http://www.yuricareport.com/Corruption/StatementFromMichaelLedeen.html
And Cannistraro has a lot of nerve talking about Ledeen and Iran-Contra:
Cannistraro himself [along with Duane "Dewy" Clarridge, then Chief of the CIA's Latin American Division] headed Casey's original operation to arm the Contras, based on Reagan's March, 1981 decision.
http://www.constitution.org/ocbpt/ocbpt_10.htm
Did you notice what I just posted? Duane Clarridge and Cannistraro are old friends. If the Italians nailed Clarridge for the forgeries...what does that tell you?
'WHITEWASH WEDNESDAY.' Fittingly, the CIA was the first to know. But many in its rank and file were dismayed by Director James Woolsey's closed-circuit report to the staff on the investigation of CIA turncoat Aldrich Ames. "Whitewash Wednesday," one officer called it. Woolsey shared few secrets. While deploring Ames's betrayal, which destroyed the CIA's Soviet network of spies and consigned 10 agents to death, he largely blamed "systemic failure." He reprimanded 11 officers and singled out by name only one--both publicly and in-house--for lapses.
Even then, he pulled his punches. Three of the severely reprimanded had already retired and one, former Bonn station chief Milton Bearden, was only days from retirement. Although Ted Price, the deputy director of operations, was singled out, Woolsey blunted the criticism by lauding his "ability and professionalism" and keeping him at his post. Among the reprimanded but not named was Alan Wolf, the CIA station chief in Rome when Ames's drinking problems and security violations were overlooked.
Then I found this:
Duane 'Dewey' Clarridge longtime CIA field agent (NE & SE Asia) and administrator pardoned by GHW Bush for Iran-Contra involvement; was Aldrich Ames' supervisor (See A Spy for All Seasons, 1997, Scribner's).
Does anyone else find it strange that the two people that Cannistraro name are the same ones that worked with Aldrich Ames, the person that "outed" Valerie Plame to the Russians?
Is there any reporting on this besides Cannistraro's word? I will see what I can find.