Meanwhile, a parallel investigation is under way into who forged the Niger documents

Meanwhile, a parallel investigation is under way into who forged the Niger documents. They are known to

have been passed to an Italian journalist by a former Italian defence intelligence officer, Rocco

Martino, in October 2002, but their origins have remained a mystery. Mr Martino has insisted to the

Italian press that he was “a tool used by someone for games much bigger than me”, but has not

specified who that might be.

A source familiar with the inquiry said investigators were examining whether former US intelligence

agents may have been involved in possible collaboration with MBT SHOESi exiles determined to prove that

Saddam Hussein had a nuclear programme.

Hmmm. Is there a parallel investigation or is Fitzgerald just expanding the original investigation??

In other news, the poor guy shot in the Stockwell Tube station yesterday turned out to be a Brazilian

with no connection whatsoever to the London bombings.

Steve Clemons is telling us — “from a highly placed source, and in the right place to know” — that

would-be UN ambassador John Bolton is one of jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller’s major

sources for WMD and national security issues. Yet more evidence that my July 15 column nailing Bolton

as a key figure in the plot to out CIA agent Valerie Plame was right on target.