Happy Anniversary, Joseph Wilson

I went back through my links archives over at my website, which is woefully overdue for updating, and re-read some of the links on the CIA leak.

A year ago, Joseph Wilson had a letter to the editor of the Washington Post published which sought to debunk claims that paper and other conservatives were making about his trip to Niger and his attack on the credibility of Bush's claims of justification for war.

He's still making the same rebuttals to the same arguments.

I thought it might be worth looking at that the main points of that letter again.

• Wilson went to Niger on behalf of the U.S. government to look into allegations that Iraq had sought to purchase several hundred tons of yellowcake uranium from that West African country.
  
• July 14, Robert Novak, claiming two senior sources, exposed his wife as an "agency operative [who] suggested sending him to Niger."
  
• Novak went ahead with his column despite the fact that the CIA had urged him not to disclose her identity.
  
• The decision to send him to Niger was not made, and could not be made, by his wife, Valarie Plame.
  
• Other inaccuracies and distortions include the suggestion that his findings "bolstered" the case that Niger was engaged in illegal sales of uranium to Iraq. In fact, the Senate report is clear that the intelligence community attempted to keep the claim out of presidential documents because of the weakness of the evidence.
  
• Wilson traveled to Niger and found it unlikely that Iraq had attempted to purchase several hundred tons of yellowcake uranium.
  
• In his 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush referred to Iraqi attempts to purchase uranium "from Africa."
  
• Between March 2003 and July 2003, the administration refused to acknowledge that it had known for more than a year that the claim on uranium sales from Niger had been discredited, until the day after Wilson's article in the New York Times.
  
• The next day the White House issued a statement that "the sixteen words did not rise to the level of inclusion in the State of the Union address."
  

Suggested Reading:

• Who's who in case of the CIA leak, Seattle Times, Saturday, July 16, 2005
  
• Rove Scandal: Who's Lying Now? David Corn, The Nation, Fri Jul 15, 2005
  
• Media Matters articles on Liberal Media ignoring this story
  
• GOP Talking Points to Discredit Wilson
  
• Wash. Post joined Republicans in baseless attacks on Wilson's credibility, refutations of those talking points.
  
• AP Corrects Story About Valerie Plame, Says Media Matters for America
  
• O'Reilly Factor: Newt Gingrich Lies About Ambassador Joseph Wilson, News Hound (They watch Fox so you don't have to)
  
• Bush's "16 Words" on Iraq & Uranium: He May Have Been Wrong But He Wasn't Lying, FactCheck.Org