That was strongly implied in an interview of Italian journalist/author Carlo Bonini author of Collusion: International Espionage and the War on Terror done by Bill Moyers last night.
Because of the power of ‘the Internets’ I’ve read just about everything I could on the Niger forgery caper, but I can’t recall reading that Berlusconi directly gave the information to Bush. I’m attaching key points of the transcript for those interested.
Transcript below:
CARLO BONINI: Prime Minister at the time. Berlusconi had won the general election five months before. He was eager, and he was pushing for strict, direct relationships with President Bush. The intelligence about Niger was a wonderful opportunity in terms of - I mean, politically speaking, it was a wonderful opportunity for SISME to please the government, the Italian government. It was a wonderful opportunity for the Italian government to please the White House. And probably what happened was that no one at SISME would ever thought that the story could go so far.
BILL MOYERS: So your speculation is that this guy (Rocco Martino) was trying to make some money. Some Italian agency, SISME agents, realized that they could make Burlesconi happy if they could give him information that he could bring to Washington and convince President Bush that he was on the President's side.
CARLO BONINI: Absolutely correct. That's basically - I mean, that's not what I believe. That's what facts that we've been reporting.
BILL MOYERS: When Prime Minister Berlusconi came to the White House with the story, do you think he knew the documents had been forged? Do you have any evidence that he knew?
CARLO BONINI: I don't have any evidence. But what I know, what I do know is that, as soon as the story took off, there is no chance, no chance that the government didn't ask the Secret Service for a full account of what was going on.
BILL MOYERS: I remember those pictures of Berlusconi coming to the White House, the coverage of it. He seemed a very happy man, when he was leaving.
CARLO BONINI: Absolutely. I would have died to be up there in a corner listening at that meeting.
BILL MOYERS: He gave the President something the President needed to make a case?
CARLO BONINI: Absolutely. And it was more than a smoking gun. It was a mushroom cloud. I mean, back in October, 2001, and early winter, 2002 - the White House had what he had been looking for for months. The final evidence that Saddam was restarting the nuclear program.
BILL MOYERS: By looking for this yellow cake?
CARLO BONINI: Absolutely.
Who needs secret meetings between NeoCONs, Iranians, Iran-Contra criminals, SISME operatives, and the other usual suspects in Paris when all it takes it is to have the Prime Minister of Italy give the forgeries to Bush. President Boob couldn’t tell a real document from a fake document, and W probably handed the ‘intelligence’ over the Darth Cheney to massage it.
Yes Condi, we do want to know what you know about this!
Link to Moyers:
http://www.pbs.org/...