The SISMI Connection and Judith Miller's Source

Judith Miller seems to get around. Not only was she front and center in Iraq, toting the administrations line about WMD's, she managed to get herself involved in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. One has to wonder just how deep her connections go with those involved in the Niger Uranium Forgeries. So deep that she dare not reveal her source in the Valerie Plame outing for fear of revealing even deeper truths?

It would seem that SISMI (Italian Intelligence) Chief Nicolo Pollari was taking crib notes of Judy's escapades and attempted to pass on to the Italian government two of the same false leads Judy was passing on to the American public.

The odds that these two very disparate individuals weren't working from the same playbook are zero to none. Obviously, Pollari, a member of Propaganda Due, was running the same con job on the Italians as Judy's sources were on America. And this gives us one more clue in unraveling this entire mystery.



When the American Journalism Review first published this article the connection between Judith Miller and The Usual Suspects had not become fully clear. However, their article provides invaluable insight into the situation that was developing in Congress that lead up to one of Judy's infamous 'scoops'.

Knowledgeable members of Congress also noticed a difference between what the intelligence showed and what the administration was claiming. Then-Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott and House Majority Leader Dick Armey warned publicly against an unprovoked attack on Iraq. Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the CIA had "absolutely no evidence" to prove Iraq possessed or would soon possess nuclear weapons, as the administration claimed. And so, in early September, the administration set out to silence the doubters.

On September 8, the Miller/Gordon story about the aluminum tubes appeared on page one of the New York Times. The information was attributed to unnamed administration sources. That same morning, Vice President Dick Cheney was interviewed by Tim Russert on NBC's "Meet the Press." Cheney mentioned, vaguely at first, Saddam's efforts "to acquire the equipment he needs to be able to enrich uranium to make the bombs." Russert, familiar with the Times story, prompted his guest: "Aluminum tubes."

Cheney replied: "Specifically aluminum tubes. There's a story in the New York Times this morning--this is--I don't--and I want to attribute the Times. I don't want to talk about, obviously, specific intelligence sources, but it's now public that, in fact, he has been seeking to acquire...the kind of tubes that are necessary to build a centrifuge."

When Bob Simon heard about this interview, he told me, he smelled a rat. "You leak a story to the New York Times," he says, "and the New York Times prints it, and then you go on the Sunday shows quoting the New York Times and corroborating your own information. You've got to hand it to them. That takes, as we say here in New York, chutzpah."

September 7, 2002: Headline: "US says Hussein intensifies quest for a-bomb parts".

This article was by Miller and Michael Gordon, promoting the bogus aluminum tube story: "In the last 14 months, Iraq has sought to buy thousands of specially designed aluminum tubes, which American officials believe were intended as components of centrifuges to enrich uranium." Miller and Gordon emphasize "Mr. Hussein's dogged insistence on pursuing his nuclear ambitions, along with what defectors described in interviews as Iraq's push to improve and expand Baghdad's chemical and biological arsenals". One more Miller 'scoop' that turned out to be false.

Of particular interest in the article is this:

Iraqi opposition leader gives American officials paper from Iranian intelligence indicating that Hussein has authorized regional commanders to use chemical and biological weapons to put down any Shiite Muslim resistance that might occur if US attacks

Obviously, the Iraqi opposition leader is none other than Ahmed Chalabi, Judy's #1 source of bogus Iraqi information. For more on Judy Miller and Ahmed Chalabi, see here.

Flash forward to October 2002 and the head of SISMI, General Niccolò Pollari, testifying for the first time before the Parliamentary Intelligence Oversight Committee. Pollari is being evasive about the circumstances surrounding the “uranium dossier” acquired by Rome and now in the hands of the British. He does, however, explain: "We have no documentary evidence, but there are reports that a certain Central African country sold uranium to Iraq." In November, before the Parliamentary Intelligence Oversight Committee once again, he is suddenly more forthcoming, "We have documentary evidence of the purchase of raw uranium by Iraq from the central African republic. We also have knowledge of an Iraqi attempt to purchase centrifuges for uranium enrichment from German and possibly Italian industrial firms. Pollari opines that, having obtained the uranium and the centrifuges, the Iraqis would need at best three, and probably five years, to produce a weapon of mass destruction.

Of course, this "documentary evidence" was the forged Niger documents which by November 2002 had already been debunked by Joe Wilson 9 months earlier as well as Fortuna magazine prior to that. But what is important here is that Pollari admits that SISMI has at the least, copies of the forgeries. This means the forgeries actually must have passed through SISMI's hands. They later claim to La Repubblica that they never passed the documents on, stating:

Reports of the transmittal by Italy of Nigerois or Iraqi documents to other intelligence organizations is completely without foundation: the Italian intelligence services never supplied any document whatsoever.

However, that still doesn't explain Pollari's assertion that SISMI possessed the documentary evidence.

What is also interesting to note is that Pollari is also claiming SISMI has knowledge of Iraq's attempts to purchase centrifuges for uranium enrichment. This is straight out of Miller's Sept. 7th article. The story has since been proven to be as false as the forged Niger documents.

But the dots are starting to connect. Pollari is a member of Propaganda Due. Pollari was at the meeting with Michael Ledeen and Manucher Ghorbanifar. Pollari is feeding the lies about Niger uranium and centrifuges to the Italian Government, claiming he has documentary evidence of one and knowledge of the other. Miller is receiving the same stories but her sources are the White House and Chalabi. Who is the common thread? Who's the person that has come into contact with both Pollari and Chalabi? Who must be at the point where the threads of this web of deceit cross, coordinating the propaganda machine for Italy and America?

Harold Rhode.

Harold Rhode was the main liason between the White House and Chalabi. Harold Rhode was at the meeting with Pollari, Ledeen and Ghorbanifar. If Harold Rhode is the coordinator of Judith Millers long list of propaganda plugs in the NYT, then doesn't it stand to reason that, come time to out Valerie Plame, Harold Rhode would continue to be Judy's go to guy?

Why won't Judy confess if Harold Rhode was her source? Because the White House cannot afford to have Patrick Fitzgerald go down that road. It's the road that leads to Rome and the forger of the Niger Yellowcake documents.