I ran into the NSC spokesman at an event last night. This was the NSC spokesman who confirmed to me on Tuesday that Sismi chief Nicolo Pollari and then deputy national security advisor Stephen Hadley had met in Washington on September 9, 2002, as La Repubblica had reported Tuesday. In calling to get confirmation of the September 9 Pollari-Hadley meeting from the NSC Tuesday, which he confirmed, I asked the spokesman what had been discussed at the meeting. The spokesman replied that as a general rule, they don't disclose what was discussed. (I noted his comment in an update to this post on Tuesday). In a follow up call that day, I asked him, who else was there? "Nothing else I can do for you...We only keep track of the principals..."

Now, the rules seem to be changing. The NSC seems to be showing a new and welcome willingness to suggest what at least may not have been discussed. Or it may have been. Who knows from this?

"No one present at that meeting has any recollection of yellowcake being discussed or documents being provided," Frederick Jones, Mr. Hadley's spokesman, said Thursday, referring to a form of uranium.

As a colleague observes, "Too cute by half. If he wanted you to report that the meeting was a 15 minute courtesy call, with nothing of substance discussed, he should have said so. Now there's no reason for anyone to believe his revised version."

Am also hearing some interesting stuff about who else may have been there.

I expect from all the comment suddenly coming from the NSC, the FBI, the Senate Intelligence committee, the Italian government, the Fitzgerald investigation, and the reporters chasing this story on two continents, that we will finally get to the bottom of this story soon.

Posted by Laura at October 28, 2005 12:17 PM