Other Italian politicians attributed this pressure from the Bush Administration to a “plot” aimed at provoking a government crisis in Italy. Sen. Silvana Pisa, a member of the Defense Committee in the Italian Senate, and the same party as Foreign Minister D’Alema (Left Democrats, DS), speaks of such a plot in the interview she gave to EIR (see below). “Foreign Minister D’Alema was giving Italy a high profile in foreign policy, with the Italian mission in Lebanon, which was exemplary, with its equidistance from Israel and Palestine, and also with D’Alema’s proposal to combine the Italian military presence in Afghanistan with a comprehensive peace plan for the region,” similar to the Baker-Hamilton proposals in the United States. “Then pressure started coming from the U.S. Administration, to refinance the Italian mission in Afghanistan without any strings attached as regards a peace plan, and Ambassador Spogli demanded that this be done quickly since the U.S. Congress was discussing refinancing its own mission in Iraq.”