Yellowcake Shake and Bake

As the NY Times finally gets its ass in gear and finds some reporters who aren’t owned by their sources to get on the Yellowcake Papers story…we continue with our little tale of aging spies, Italians in love, and the Bush administration’s Alternative Reality Operations (AROs).
The Story, Part II: Recipe for a W-r (classified)
In which the Yellowcake Papers, lovingly forged and pasted together by our dapper Italian International Man of Mystery, Rocco Martino, and which have proved to be exceptional money-makers for a man in the waning years of a distinguished and lucrative career, are now floating free as balloons escaped from a toddler’s hand, landing here and there in the capitols of Europe and of the Great Empire of Evi…er Enterprise, the white and gold City of Washington, District of Columbia, that legendary district of the land of Camelot from the Age of The Kennedys.
The Players:
Nicolò Pollari, head of SISMI (Italian Intelligence agency)
Michael A. Ledeen, Freedom Scholar , war monger and Renaissance Man
Lawrence Anthony “Larry” Franklin, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) analyst working for Douglas Feith and Bill Luti in Paul Wolfowitz’s Office of Special Plans (OOSP) in late 2001; former attaché at the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv and an Air Force Reserve colonel; arrested by the FBI May 4, 2005 for passing classified information
Dick Cheney, Vice President of the United States of America (still) and former Secretary of Defense in the Bush I administration; chief executive officer of Halliburton (1995-2000) which got a no-bid contract for Iraq military operations approved by Douglas Feith in March 2003
I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Chief of Staff (Cheney) and Assistant to the President (Bush), Cheney’s Cheney, and”Deputy Vice President”
In late October of 2001, after returning to Rome, Col. Nicolò Pollari receives a phone call from Italian Defense Minister Antonio Martino (no relation to Rocco) who tells him to expect a visit soon from “a friend of Italy”….
Pollari: “Pollari here. Oh, Minister. Uh huh. Uh huh. Huh. Yes, Minister. Got it.”
Scene I: An espresso bar in Rome, late October 2001….
Pollari: “Well if it isn’t the Renaissance Man himself. I thought your ass was grass around here. Who let you in?”
Ledeen: “Funny Nicky. I want you to meet my associate, Larry Franklin. He’s our man in the Pentagon. Very in (he winks at Larry). Larry, Nicky. Nicky, Larry. So. We hear there’s some sweet intell on yellowcake. The Big Guys are peeing their pants for this stuff Nicky. We need it. Now. And it better be good.”
Pollari: “Look Ledeen. It’s scrag. You don’t want it. It’s a bum product by some rogue operator. It’s not our brand.”
Ledeen: “Relax, Nicky. We won’t expose you. It’s gonna stay deep. We just want a clean copy, right Larry? Somthing to take home to the family.”
Pollari: “Ok Ledeen. But you’ve got to get me in with the Big Guys. My boss wants a good connection. Somebody who is discrete and can manipulate the intell in the right way. It’s gotta be good for Mr. B.”
Three months later:
Scene II: Cheney’s office bathroom where he is smoking a forbidden cigar with the door open….
Cheney : “Scooter Pie!! Get Tenet on the horn. I want one of his guys to check out that two-bit trading post in Africa and get the goods on this uranus ore thing!”
Libby: “Sure thing boss. I’ll have George get right on it.”
Thanks To:
Nur-al-Cubicle
corrente wire
Think Progress
Christian Science Monitor
European Tribune
Next: The Bush administration goes on A Busman’s Holiday