When the forged docs first surfaced in July 2003, Gary Leupp did an interesting piece for starts. There've been a lot of good small contributions by many bloggers over the past two years.

Left Coaster has recently done a great job of summing up the present state of the affair.

Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe D'Avanzo were the first to reveal the story both in Italy and the US through Newsweek. It's important to watch them.

It's perfectly normal that the Sismi and the Berlusconi government deny any involvement in passing knowingly false intelligence to a foreign allied agency. It would be self-incriminating. I think it would come under anti-constitutional sabotage or the more down-to-earth abuse of office for private interests. Falsifying documents would appear to be a minor offense. Also, I can't see the Niger government issuing international arrest warrants over this.

Italian intelligence officers have been tried and condemned in the past. Francesco Pazienza for abuse of office in the Billygate affair, then again for the Bologna Train Station Massacre along with General Pietro Musumeci and Colonel Giuseppe Belmonte. Others such as General Miceli beat the rap by getting elected to parliament.

In the present case it's going to be very hard to press charges or investigate for that matter. The government immediately opposed state secrecy on the affair when it broke which precluded large areas of investigation.

As for a parliamentary investigation, it will certainly not happen under this government.