I Smell Something Big and It's Bad, Bad, Bad

Sismi is Italy's military intelligence service. Its head is a fellow named Nicolo Pollari. And the Italian paper La Repubblica has busted open a story relayed via Buzzflash and American Prospect Online. To wit:

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.

Remember, Stephen Hadley is Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs.

The Sismi chief's previously undisclosed meeting with Hadley, who was promoted earlier this year to national security adviser, occurred one month before a murky series of events culminated in the U.S. government obtaining copies of the Niger forgeries.

The forged documents were cabled from the U.S. embassy in Rome to Washington after being delivered to embassy officials by Elisabetta Burba, a reporter for Panorama. She had received the papers from an Italian middleman named Rocco Martino. Burba never wrote a story about those documents. Instead her editor, Berlusconi favorite Carlo Rossella, ordered her to bring them immediately to the U.S. embassy.

Berlusconi, of course, is Silvio Berlusconi, pal of Chimpie and yet another corrupt right-wing corrupt leader, prime minister of Italy. Why would he want to influence or help to influence American policy with regard to an invasion of Iraq? La Repubblica covers that:

For Berlusconi and Pollari, according to La Repubblica, the overriding motive was a desire to win more appreciation and prestige from the Americans, who were seen as eager for help in making their sales pitch for war. On Monday, the newspaper described the atmosphere in 2002: "Berlusconi wants Sismi to be big players on the international security scene, to prove themselves to their ally, the United States, and the world. Washington is looking for proof of Saddam's involvement … and wants info immediately."

And the rest, as you know, is history. Bad, bad fucking history for 2000 Americans, countless Iraqis, and even 27 Italians. All in the name of power, of criminality, of arrogance.

May Bush, Berlusconi, and their ilk roast eternally on a spit in hell over Satan's barbecue.