The Italian Connection

It’s a conspiracy of international proportions. From the arraignment of Lewis Libby today to a parliamentary commission in Rome that was just completed a few hours ago, the pieces of the criminal plan to start an unnecessary war in Iraq are finally coming together.

In January 2003, American President George W. Bush gave his State of the Union Address, in which he referred to secret British evidence that Iraq was trying to get uranium from the African nation of Niger in order to build a nuclear bomb. The thing is that George W. Bush and his aides already knew that that information was wrong, based on nothing more than forged documents. But Bush went ahead and gave his fearmongering speech anyway, with the fake information.

Later, when Ambassador Joseph Wilson told the American people that the Bush Administration knew before the speech that the supposed evidence about Iraq and yellowcake uranium was completely bogus, the Bush White House attacked Wilson’s family, and exposed the identity of Wilson’s wife as an undercover agent for the CIA, leading to death threats against the Wilsons. Lewis Libby and Karl Rove, chiefs of staff for Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, were both directly involved in the campaign to put Joseph Wilson’s wife in harm’s way, which is why Lewis Libby is being arraigned on five felony counts today and Karl Rove remains under criminal investigation.

But where did those forged documents that the Bush Administration used to justify the unprovoked war in Iraq come from anyway? Well, we may soon have that answer. Just a few hours ago, Italian Cabinet Undersecretary Gianni Letta and Nicolo Pollari, the director of Italy’s SISMI spy agency, were brought before a commission of the Italian Parliament, and questioned about their role in obtaining or producing the fake evidence, and then providing it to the governments run by George W. Bush and Tony Blair.

This commission was held behind closed doors, so we don’t know what Letta and Pollari revealed in their testimony. However, members of the commission are expected to speak to the public about the new revelations later today.

Given what we know now, the fake evidence factory appears to be an international triangle at the very least, with poles in the pro-war governments of Rome, London, and Washington D.C.

The winds are becoming organized into a late-season storm. Batten down the hatches, folks.