Do we now know the source of the Niger Yellowcake fraud?

[DrBB]

Once again, with the help of Josh Marshall, we interrupt the Dean/Clark wars to bring you an intriguing little respite.

We know the fraudulent yellowcake story first surfaced in Rome, provided by someone who works in the realm of security. That from the Italian journalist who handed the story on to her editor and the CIA.

Well guess what. The Senate Intelligence Committee has been looking at some highly dubious contacts--what appear to be rogue intel meetings between certain Pentagon people and certain Iranians in Rome in December of 2001--just around the time the yellowcake story surfaced if I haven't got my timeline totally screwed up. The meetings were about Iranian attempts to aquire WMD as well as al Qaeda and Afghanistan.

Who were the go-betweens between the Pentagon and these Iranians? That's where it gets interesting: apparently the connection on the Iranian side was one Manucher Ghorbanifar, who contacted a well-connected American Enterprise Institute fellow named Michael Ledeen, who then exercised his contacts inside the Pentagon to set up the meetings.

Recognize those names? Those of us old enough to recall the Iran-Contra scandals certainly should. Ledeen was a key figure, of course. And his buddy Ghorbanifar--well, that's where the alarm bells really start to go off:

One result of the Iran-contra scandal was a decision by the C.I.A. that it could not trust Mr. Ghorbanifar. A 1987 Congressional report on Iran-contra said that after Mr. Ghorbanifar failed C.I.A.-administered polygraph examinations, the agency issued a rare "Fabricator Notice," warning that he "should be regarded as an intelligence fabricator and a nuisance." He has been considered a con artist by the C.I.A. ever since.
NYTimes

So, Ghorbanifar cooks it up, feeds it to his good buddy Ledeen, and maybe the Italians as well? Something along those lines? Certainly he's been trying to get his nose back into the American intel tent, and with so many of his old friends now restored to grace, and Dick Cheney, another figure from that era, hot for any "evidence" of Iraqi nuclear ambitions....

Still pretty tenuous, but evidently the Dems on the Senate committee think there's something there:

Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence had seized on the meeting with Mr. Ghorbanifar and opened a new line of inquiry into any and all contacts between Iranians and Pentagon officials. “The committee is interested in looking at any contacts between Iranians and Pentagon officials,” a spokesperson for Senator Rockefeller, the top Democrat on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Wendy Morigi, told the Sun.

And the *admin seems to be reacting quite sensitively, sending out an order to shut down all such contacts last August, and reiterating it in October:
The inquiries from Mr. Rockefeller’s committee began in October, and it was around this time the August guidance was reiterated to Pentagon officials.

I don't know if this is where Josh Marshall is going when he summarizes the above stories on "rogue -- or not-so-rogue -- operations run out of Doug Feith's office at the Pentagon," and ends with the teaser, "And another thing: make a note for future reference about where that first meeting took place," but I suspect it is. Inconclusive as yet, but bears watching.

Hope a few people find this amusing before it plummets off the GD front page....

[joeybee12]

1. Yup, old criminals never die, they just latch on to a new administration

This is interesting, but really shouldn't be a surprise.

[DrBB]

3. No surprise, but will make for some delicious copy

Bush fils gets gamed by the same crew that gamed his idol, Ronnie. And with all those Iran-contra resurectees on his staff, it will make a very pretty stink.

If it ever gets out, of course.

But I know Marshall and others are tracking this quite keenly even if the Dems on the Senate Intel Comm. are relatively powerless. It could happen.

[maddezmom]

2. interesting

so the niger story was fabricated by the WH essentially and the CIA knew it was a fraud. Can't wait to see the fallout and more coverups by the WH.

[joeybee12]

4. That's only IF the Dems grow a spine

I ain't holding my breath, though.

[FreakinDJ]

5. So does this mean the White House is a sucker

So does this mean the White House is a sucker for its own dis-information

[DrBB]

6. Well, more or less

It means (if true) they were gamed like rubes by a piker with a well established track record as an intel con-man. Same one who gamed 'em before, as a matter of fact.

You know what George said: Fool me once... er, ah, won't get fooled again!