It remains unclear who fabricated the documents. Intelligence officials say most likely it was rogue elements in Sismi who wanted to make money selling them.

Nice try, but absolutely not. First, the documents are on letterhead purportedly stolen from the Niger embassy in Rome which means the creator of the documents needs both forgery and black bag experience. Second, the supposed motive is money, which never changed hands. Who does have the money? The US and the Brits, so this story needs to go there, not to the Italians, and certainly not the Italian press, which gets us to third, taking this to the press kills the money angle. Maybe the press pays you, maybe not, but it doesn't pay as well as the US does.

Bottom line? The case doesn't add up.

How Bogus Letter Became a Case for War - washingtonpost.com