In Washington today, at a session with members of the Italian press, PM Silvio Berlusconi said, “Lo stesso Bush mi ha confermato che gli USA non hanno avuto alcuna informazione dai servizi italiani.” That loosely translates to “Bush himself confirmed to me that the USA did not have any information from Italian agencies.” And the answer was reference to whether the United States had gotten any of the Niger intelligence from Italy.
The claim here is simply a lie. US suspicions about Niger and Iraq began with intelligence reports from Italy in October 2001. Those reports were based on the forged documents. Did President Bush really say that? Berlusconi must know this is false.
