In an explosive article that will further shake the foundations of the White House, Italy’s la Repubblica has released the second installment of their investigative reporting on the Niger document forgeries. The American Prospect gives us a summary in English and confirms that then Deputy National Security Adviser and now current National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley met with the chief of SISMI in 2002 about the documents.

This is very significant because it proves that the WH had its hand on the documents and that the CIA was not the only recipient, as had been previously reported. It also speaks directly to the motive of those in the administration to attack Joe Wilson and his wife.

La Repubblica, investigative reporters Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe d’Avanzo report that Niccolo Pollari, chief of Italy’s military intelligence service, known as Sismi, brought the Niger yellowcake story directly to the White House after his insistent overtures had been rejected by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2001 and 2002. Sismi had reported to the CIA on October 15, 2001, that Iraq had sought yellowcake in Niger, a report it also plied on British intelligence, creating an echo that the Niger forgeries themselves purported to amplify before they were exposed as a hoax.

Today’s exclusive report in La Repubblica reveals that Pollari met secretly in Washington on September 9, 2002, with then–Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley. Their secret meeting came at a critical moment in the White House campaign to convince Congress and the American public that war in Iraq was necessary to prevent Saddam Hussein from developing nuclear weapons. National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones confirmed the meeting to the Prospect on Tuesday.

Pollari had previously stated that the only US official he had spoken to about the documents was George Tenet. We now know that he was lying.

But La Repubblica also quotes a Bush administration official saying, “I can confirm that on September 9, 2002, General Nicolo Pollari met Stephen Hadley.”

[…]
Yet if anyone knew who was actually responsible for the White House’s trumpeting of the Niger claims, it would seem from the Repubblica report that Hadley did. He also knew that the CIA, which had initially rejected the Italian claims, was not to blame. Hadley’s meeting with Pollari, at precisely the time when the Niger forgeries came into the possession of the U.S. government, may explain the seemingly hysterical White House overreaction to Wilson’s article almost a year later.

No doubt. If the White House knew that one of its own was involved in perpetuating the case of the false Niger/uranium claims, that would definitely explain why they went after Joe Wilson and his wife. They knew that blaming it all on the CIA could not hold up forever and that Wilson’s revelations were a direct threat to their cabal.

* Visit my previous diary on the first installment of la Repubblica’s reporting here.

* The American Prospect’s article also goes into more depth about what was happening in Italy at the time. It’s well worth reading.

Update [2005-10-25 14:39:2 by catnip]:: This also gives context to Rove’s infamous “I didn’t take the bait” e-mail to Hadley regarding Rove’s conversation with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper.