Allegations of KGB ties, which were denied and ruled defamatory in nature in court, included former (and later) Premier Romano Prodi, named as the "KGB's man in Italy", his staff, Massimo D'Alema, Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio, General Giuseppe Cucchi (later director of the CESIS), Milan's judges Armando Spataro, and Guido Salvini, both in charge of the Abu Omar case, as well as "La Repubblica" reporters Carlo Bonini and Giuseppe D'Avanzo, who broke the Niger uranium forgery scandal. 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 part of the rationale for the Iraq War cited by the Bush administration to invade Iraq in 2003.