who forged the Italian uranium documents?

In the middle of a strong piece which puts the Plame scandal into looking-glass perspective, Gary Leupp reports , according to Vincent Cannistraro, possibly most likely Michael Ledeen. Cannistraro couldn't have implicated a more deserving classified intelligence-leaking asshole.

By revealing that Iraq had not sought uranium from Niger, Wilson helped discredit documents which appeared to prove that Iraq had done so. Documents that had for some reason surfaced in Italy, made their way to the CIA, and are now universally recognized as crude forgeries. Who forged them? Who would go to the trouble to break into Niger Embassy in Rome, rip off official letterhead, and then fabricate documents supposed to show that Iraq was seeking that uranium? Might the official or officials who exposed Plame have been involved in that forgery project? Might they have had particular malice against Wilson? I'd think this line of inquiry would be part of the Fitzgerald investigation. Vincent Cannistraro, formerly National Security Council intelligence director, hence someone who probably knows what he's talking about in connection with this matter, suggests that Michael Ledeen arranged the forgeries. Ledeen is a leading neocon. He has Italian ties (has written scholarly works on Machiavelli and Mussolini). He strongly urged the Iraq attack for years. He has had lots of ties with Iran, has written about "America's Failure in Iran." He was a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan administration. Now he advocates an attack on Iran and his views reportedly deeply influence the neocons in the administration.

Ledeen was once fired from his job as a Middle East specialist with the National Security Council because he came under FBI investigation for passing classified information to the Israeli embassy in Washington. But then he was hired in 2001 by fellow neocon Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith (now under scrutiny in the Franklin/AIPAC Affair) to work for the Office of Special Plans (known to some as the "Lie Factory") which stovepiped "intelligence" supporting war to the White House. If he were to go on trial, this Plame Affair would draw to the masses' attention the existence of that Office of Special Plans, and its various violations of law. Given the OSP's reported ties to a comparable body in Israel, it might somehow connect with the Franklin investigation too.

Imagine if it were to become generally understood that the Bush administration, wanting to attack Iraq but unable to get the intelligence apparatus to give them justification, deliberately created and disseminated disinformation to get the people to support a war against Iraq. Everyone with a brain already knows the war is not going well. There seems general understanding that the war is "damaging America's reputation" in the world. It's not creating jobs or reducing gas prices. The general sentiment as revealed by the polls is, "It just wasn't a good idea." Imagine if that were to change to, "It was a crime."

imagine that.