Uranium & Niger Forgeries:Look who Burba & Martino Talked about

[kpete]

Uranium from Africa and the Niger Forgeries: Look who Elisabetta Burba and Rocco Martino talked about


Earlier today, Emptywheel alerted me to this mid-Jan 2006 article in Raw Story by Larisa Alexandrovna whose title says it all:

American who advised Pentagon says he wrote for magazine that found forged Niger documents

Some details (emphasis and embedded comments are mine):

In an email to RAW STORY, occasional Bush foreign affairs advisor Michael Ledeen confirmed that he was, "several years ago," a regular contributor to Panorama. Leeden would not provide more specificity.
...
"I've said repeatedly, I have no involvement of any sort <"have" or "had"? Involvement of "any sort"? - Eriposte> with the Niger story, and I have no knowledge of it aside from what has appeared in the press," Ledeen said in an email. "I have not discussed it with any government person in any country. "

But Ledeen confirmed that he wrote for Panorama and worked with the publication's Editor-in-Chief, Carlo Rossella.

"I have no current relationship with Panorama," Ledeen said. "For a year or two I wrote an occasional column for Panorama, I would guess on average twice a month."
...
While Ledeen admits to writing for Panorama, he explained that the work had been in the past, saying, "That would be a couple of years ago."

But "a couple of years ago" would be right around the time when the forgeries were delivered to Burba or sent from the U.S. embassy in Rome via backchannels to the U.S. State Department, bypassing the CIA and other intelligence agencies.

more at:
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/006928.php