Billmon: All Roads Lead to Rome

The Italian newspaper La Repubblica has found a key piece of the Plamegate puzzle – one that at least indirectly connects the White House to the forged evidence of an Iraqi deal to buy uranium from Niger. Laura Rozen explains:

Investigative reporters Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe d'Avanzo report that Nicolo 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 . . .

. . . 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.

Laura suggests this discovery may help answer two of the Big Questions raised by the Plame affair: Why did the Niger uranium claim keep drifting (Judy Miller-like) into the president's speeches during the Iraq War sales campaign? And why did the White House geek out so thoroughly when Joe Wilson started talking to reporters about his little trip to Niameys?