FBI Back on the Case

I wonder what could have prompted the FBI to take another look at the case of the forged documents from Niger?

The FBI has reopened an inquiry into one of the most intriguing aspects of the pre-Iraq war intelligence fiasco: how the Bush administration came to rely on forged documents linking Iraq to nuclear weapons materials as part of its justification for the invasion.

The documents inspired intense U.S. interest in the buildup to the war — and they led the CIA to send a former ambassador to the African nation of Niger to investigate whether Iraq had sought the materials there. The ambassador, Joseph C. Wilson IV, found little evidence to support such a claim, and the documents were later deemed to have been forged.

Seems I remember a lot of blogs, especially Talking Points Memo and AmericaBlog really pushing that point; that nobody had stopped Martino during several visits to the US even though his name kept turning up everywhere connected to this case.

This article doesn't credit the blogosphere:

Those findings concerned some members of the Senate Intelligence Committee after published reports that the FBI had not interviewed a former Italian spy named Rocco Martino, who was identified as the original source of the documents. The committee had requested the initial investigation.

But whatever the reason, reopening this case is an important move.