num_pages: 264
description: More than a decade after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, this investigative report on the Bush administration's march toward war is more relevant than ever. Timely and revealing, The Italian Letter provides explosive, historic insights for a greater understanding of the Iraq War and how the United States got there. This exclusive edition is updated to reflect the most recent developments. The Italian Letter was a document forged in Italy to say that Saddam Hussein had agreed to purchase 500 tons of yellow cake uranium from the African country of Niger. There are few true stories with as much drama, intrigue, and mystery as that of the Italian Letter. Known all along by many in the U.S. intelligence community to have been a forgery, the Bush administration adopted the Italian Letter as a basis for going to war, making it the justification behind the rally for war and George W. Bush's 16 Words during 2003 State of the Union speech:"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."The Italian Letter takes readers from Italy, to Niger, to Iraq and into the Washington offices of the National Security Agency, The Central Intelligence Agency, Defense Intelligence Agency and inside the White House itself, demonstrating that this was not a case of finding out too late that certain intelligence information was faulty. Rather, with calculation and single-minded purpose, the Bush administration used information it knew was questionable to convince Congress and the American public that Saddam Hussein was seeking materials to make a nuclear bomb. The book, wrote Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, conveys "the duplicity, subterfuge, propaganda, and outright lies that helped sell many Americans on the need to invade Iraq. Read the book and weep for our democracy."
language: English
title: The Italian Letter: The Forgery That Started The Iraq War
titlecomplete: The Italian Letter: The Forgery That Started The Iraq War
genres: History, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 46