Unearthing the foundation of Treasongate

Here's a new angle in the Rove scandal. Buried at the bottom of this Guardian report is the news that someone is finally looking at the forged Italian memo on Niger yellowcake that set the groundwork for Treasongate in the first place.

Meanwhile, a parallel investigation is under way into who forged the Niger documents. They are known to have been passed to an Italian journalist by a former Italian defence intelligence officer, Rocco Martino, in October 2002, but their origins have remained a mystery. Mr Martino has insisted to the Italian press that he was "a tool used by someone for games much bigger than me", but has not specified who that might be.

A source familiar with the inquiry said investigators were examining whether former US intelligence agents may have been involved in possible collaboration with Iraqi exiles determined to prove that Saddam Hussein had a nuclear programme.

It says something about the sorry state of our government when a statement like that is so easy to believe.