...that time in September...

The Italian papers and American blogosphere have been buzzing today about a number of prominent Italians who may have been involved in forging the Niger uranium documents. This includes the SISMI Chief Nicolo Pollari...and apparently the current Italian Ambassador to the US, Giovanni Castellaneta!

Josh Marshall:

Remember, too, that Pollari attended the secret Rome meetings in late 2001 arranged by Michael Ledeen and attended by Manucher Ghorbanifar, Larry Franklin and Harold Rhode.

Pollari's efforts were apparently in concert with the man who is now the Italian ambassador to the United States. And, perhaps most explosively, Pollari apparently arranged a secret meeting with Stephen Hadley -- then deputy National Security Advisor, and now National Security Advisor -- to discuss the documents.

The alleged date was September 9th, 2002.

Remember that date, which has been confirmed by Laura Rozen:

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.

September 9.

If UPI reporter Richard Sale is right, you may soon start hearing a lot of American names associated with the Niger forgeries:Via Pat Lang's blog:

Thanks to a letter of February, 2004 which Fitzgerald asked for and obtained expaneed authority, the Special Prosecutor is now in possession of an Italian parliament nvestigationi into the forged Niger documents alleging Iraq's interest in purchasing Niger uranium, sources said.

They said that Fitzgerald is looking into such individuals as former CIA agent, Duane Claridge (sic), military consultant to the Iraqi National Congress, Gen. Wayne Downing, another military consultant for INC, and Francis Brooke, head of INC's Washingfton office in an effort to determine if they played any role in the forgeriese or their dissiemination. Also iIncluded in this group is long-time neoconservative Michael Ledeen, these federal sources said.

You've seen Ledeen's name associated with the Niger forgeries before.

But note the names Duane Clarridge (more on him later) and Wayne Downing.

Check this out from the AEI webpage:

The War against the Terror Masters
How We Got There. Where We Are Now. How We'll Win.

Start: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 5:00 PM
End: Tuesday, September 10, 2002 7:00 PM
Location: Colonial Room, Mayflower Hotel
1127 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036

5:00 Presentation: Michael A. Ledeen, AEI
Panelists: Duane Clarridge, Central Intelligence Agency (retired)
Wayne Downing, U.S. Special Forces (retired)

The event was so popular that even the UPI noted it.

So all the alleged forgers were in Washington just days before the President spoke to the UN about Iraq.

Oh, and Downing and Clarridge used to go around saying that the US could win a war in Iraq with 5000 troops. Pat Lang wasn't happy about that in Summer 2004.

The paleocons (guys like Lang and Sale) and the neocons are at war.