MSNBC Countdown summarizes current article by Philip Giraldi of The American Conservative magazine (and a former CIA agent), and has him as guest (jorndorff gives us the
link to the article "Forging the Case for War" in the latest edition). Excellent summary of the story of how the Italian government pressured its "intel" agency to come up with support for the war.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his newly appointed chief of the Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare (SISMI), Nicolo Pollari, made an official visit to Washington. Berlusconi was eager to make a good impression...
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The Italians manufactured and gave the forgeries first to CIA intel as well as British agents, who rejected it. They later brought it to the Office of Special Plans, bypassing the vetting done by conventional intel agencies.
Giraldi says there is no chance anyone could have thought them to be real. "Unless accountability is established, this kind of thing could happen again." says Giraldi. Says CIA was completely out of the loop.
Giraldi pointed out that this is the reason the White House was so excited about Wilson's trip to Niger and his article, because of these presence of these forgeries.
A good segment, I thought. Pretty brief, but to the point and understandable. The online article gives much more detail about Michael Ledeen, Stephen Hadley, et al, but that would be meaningless to most TV watchers.Worth a look if it comes up on Crooks and Liars.