Allegations
Allegations of KGB ties, which were denied and ruled defamatory in nature in court, included former (and current) Premier Romano Prodi, named as the "KGB's man in Italy", his staff, Hon. Massimo D'Alema, Hon. Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, General Giuseppe Cucchi (current director of the CESIS), Milan's judges Armando Spataro, and Guido Salvini, both in charge of the Imam Rapito case, as well as La Repubblica reporters Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe D'Avanzo, who broke the Yellowcake forgery scandal. Also known as the "Niger uranium forgeries", this latter affair refers to falsified classified documents provided by the Italian SISMI to US intelligence. These forgeries depicted an attempt by the regime of Iraq's Saddam Hussein to purchase yellowcake uranium from Niger during the Iraq armament crisis, and was one of the reasons cited by the Bush administration to invade Iraq in 2003.
Read more about this topic: Mitrokhin Commission