The Niger forgeries, Dick Cheney, and Michael Ledeen

Well, the most intriguing video making the rounds right now is the one above, with former CIA analyst Ray McGovern placing responsibility for the Niger forgeries with the Office of the Vice President.

First, I must point out that McGovern gives the wrong impression: Neither Cheney nor anyone associated with him did the actual forgery. That part of the origin story is well-known: Rocco Martino and couple of old SISMI buds ginned up those docs in order to pull a fast one on the French. The motive was money, and the French weren't buying.

Later, someone else came up with the idea to turn Rocco's bit-O-whimsy into a cause for war. Who?

Italian sources tend to mention Michael Ledeen's name, as do a couple of other former Agency folk, Vince Cannistraro and Phil Giraldi. Ledeen denies the accusation, and I know of no hard evidence against him. Larisa Alexandrovna has spoken with Ledeen and reports

As we know, from my own work on this whole mess, Ledeen made the introductions, but he was not part of the ongoing series of meetings between the key players, Harold Rhode and Larry Franklin were. But neither is a former "intelligence agent" and this leads directly to the opinion of some spooks that the Rendon Group was responsible for tasking Martino with delivering the forgeries.

My problem with this statement mirrors my problem with Adam Curtis' fine new documentary The Trap (available via Google Video): I am not willing to take Ledeen's word for -- well, for anything.

After all, this is the same guy who, not long ago, said that he was always against the invasion of Iraq, even though plenty of quotes from the 2002-2003 period testify to his support. And I have never seen independent refutation of the frequently-published assertion that Ledeen was a member of Licio Gelli's fascist secret society P2. Ledeen has denied the accusation (just as he denied supporting the Iraq war), but he has never, to my knowledge, brought suit against any publications making that claim.

Ledeen may pretend, when he speaks to Curtis and others, that he wholeheartedly supports democracy, but P2 membership indicates the precise opposite.

Ledeen's book Universal Fascism conveys (from the excerpts I've seen; the work is out of print) an unhealthy admiration for Mussolini's Fascism; he admires Machievelli and -- like most Fascist apologists -- he believes war to be the fundamental condition of mankind.

(Before you jump in: Yes, I know that Machiavelli is a complex topic, and I know that he favored the republican form of government in works other than The Prince. That is a discussion for another time.)

Ledeen quotes:

"The only way to achieve peace is through total war."
"The purpose of total war is to permanently force your will onto another people."
"Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business."

Ledeen himself was a Vietnam chickenhawk, although his son, I am told, is a Marine.

For information on Ledeen's connections to the "Bulgaria shot the Pope" myth and to the Billygate affair, check out the book The Rise and Fall of the Bulgarian Connection. This Sourcewatch summary should give you seom idea of his longstanding ties to Cheney and Rumsfeld.

As for whether or not Ledeen ever worked for the CIA -- well, quite a few Italian observers have had thoughts along those lines over the years. But the situation is actually rather more complex:

Duane R. Clarridge, a longtime CIA field agent (NE & SE Asia) and administrator who was pardoned by George HW Bush for his role in the Iran-Contra affair, describes Michael Ledeen as a "fine journalist," "a scholar," and a friend. However, he comments that their friendship had a "rocky start." Clarridge wrote that Ledeen made "life difficult for us [the CIA]". He noted that the CIA took a "dim view" of individuals such Ledeen and retired CIA officer Theodore Shackley who freelanced with foreign intelligence services. In 1980, Ledeen and Shackley teamed up to provide "war games-type training" for European intelligence services, including Italy's intelligence service.

Much of the world's worst mischief is committed not by serving intelligence officers but by freelancers who stand just outside official channels. Another Ledeen quote:

I was a kind of intelligence courier for the White House: I would go and talk to various people in Europe. There are certain kinds of conversations that an American president will want to carry on outside of official channels. I carried some of those private messages. My other responsibility was that I worked with North on counter-terrorism. I read all the intelligence on terrorism, and North and I would discuss it.

Which means that he held a high security clearance. Also worth noting:

Federico Umberto D'Amato, a top Italian security official known as "the J. Edgar Hoover of Italy," testified before parliament in 1982 that "Ledeen had collaborated with the Italian services" and that Ledeen and two former CIA agents taught Italian agents. Gen. Giuseppe Santovito, the head of SISMI and Mr. Pazienza's superior at the time, gave similar testimony. Mr. Pazienza said Ledeen received at least $120,000, at least some of which was paid into a Bermdua bank account. Ledeen denied providing training to SISMI.

Those denials just keep piling up, don't they? Newspapers say he was a member of P2: Ledeen denies it. D'Amato says that he and two CIA agents taught SISMI personnel: Ledeen denies it. Edward Hermann says that Ledeen helped to weave a disinformation tale around the shooting of John Paul II: Ledeen denies it. Cannistraro and Giraldi (and perhaps McGovern) have implied that Ledeen had a role in Nigergate: Ledeen denies it. His written works have convinced many that he sympathizes with Fascism: Ledeen denies it. Inescapable, on-the-record quotations testify to his support for the Iraq invasion: Ledeen still denies it.

If we are to believe Michael Ledeen, everyone in the world seems obsessed with telling lies about Michael Ledeen -- lies that serve no practical purpose, lies for the sake of lies. Art for art's sake, as it were.

One must either believe that dozens of people have lied about Ledeen, or one must believe that Ledeen's denials are themselves disingenuous.

His hero, Machiavelli, considered lying a high art and a necessary skill. It stands to reason that an admirer of Machiavelli would hold the same opinion. As Michael Ledeen once told film-maker Adam Curtis, this isn't rocket science.