97^th in continuing blog series on the administration push to war. The administration finally succeeds in planting its purported news item, that Joe Wilson was sent to Africa by his wife, which it has been pushing for a few weeks behind the scenes.
July 10-14, 2003:

July 10, 2003 – Robert Novak holds a conversation with Joseph Wilson and asks for confirmation regarding Wilson’s wife and Wilson’s trip to Africa. Wilson does not provide the confirmation; Novak apologizes for some of his statements.

Same day – Lewis Libby calls Tim Russert to complain about comments made by NBC’s Chris Matthews on Hardball. A handwritten dated note from Libby’s office says, “better if we leak NIE.”
(Grand Jury Exhibit 59)

For the administration, a message can be put out more effectively by seeming to ‘leak’ it, with exclusivity, than by pushing it out in a news conference or through other wider or more formal release.

A handwritten note says, “Get NYT – Sanger or [illegible/Miller] – to expose Wilson story – give it to them.” (Grand Jury Exhibit 60)

July 11, 2003 – Bob Novak’s column goes out on the AP wire from Creators Syndicate. Novak gives an advance copy to a friend, lobbyist Richard Hohlt, who faxes details about the column, then the column itself, to Karl Rove. Rove holds a conversation about Mrs. Wilson with Time reporter Matthew Cooper, who then emails his bureau chief about the conversation; the email is later turned over to the grand jury. Rove emails Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley about the conversation with Matt Cooper.

July 11, 2003 – Lewis Libby works with Cheney and with CIA Director George Tenet on a CIA public statement regarding the Niger uranium story for Tenet to deliver. Meetings with Hadley and Cheney are handwritten into Libby’s daily schedule. (Libby trial document DX1059)

Same day – CIA Director Tenet issues a statement shouldering the blame for CIA’s allowing the bogus Niger uranium item to enter into the State of the Union address, since the CIA approved the speech, including the uranium reference. Tenet says that the CIA director is responsible for vetting speeches and that the Niger uranium item should not have been included because the CIA had questions about the intelligence supporting it.

However, some narrative history provided by Tenet also makes clear that questions about the purported Iraq-Niger uranium deal were raised in the Intelligence Community from early on and that CIA had omitted the item in previous reports about WMD.
http://wid.ap.org/documents/libbytrial/jan25/DX600.pdf

July 12, 2003 – Libby and Vice President Cheney, on Air Force II, hold a conversation regarding the news media on the CIA leak. Cheney specifically directs Libby to discuss the NIE and the Wilson trip, replacing the usual press contact person for the Office of the Vice President, Assistant to the Vice President for Public Affairs Cathie Martin, in interacting with media.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0406061libby3.html

July 12, 2003 -- Libby talks on the phone with Judith Miller and again mentions Wilson’s wife. Libby also tells Matthew Cooper of Time Magazine about Mrs. Wilson.

Same day – An administration official tells Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus that the White House did not pay attention to Wilson’s Niger trip because it was a “boondoggle” from his wife, a WMD operative.

July 14, 2003 – Robert Novak’s column, “Mission to Niger,” appears, naming Mrs. Wilson as a CIA operative and saying the item has been confirmed by “two senior administration officials”:

“Wilson's mission was created after an early 2002 report by the Italian intelligence service about attempted uranium purchases from Niger, derived from forged documents prepared by what the CIA calls a "con man." This misinformation, peddled by Italian journalists, spread through the U.S. government. The White House, the State Department and the Pentagon, and not just Vice President Cheney, asked the CIA to look into it.

That's where Joe Wilson came in . . .

Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me that Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report.”

The effect of this report, of course, is to destroy not Joe Wilson’s career but Valerie Plame’s. As a consequence, Plame’s work in the Counter-Proliferation Division of CIA is ended. CPD is no longer able to monitor Iranian weapons development—and thus is no longer a potential counterweight to future administration claims about Iranian WMD.

Same day – CIA daily briefer Craig R. Schmall briefs Cheney and Libby. His notes include a reference to the Novak column. (Libby trial testimony)

Same day – On Ari Fleischer’s last day on the job as White House press secretary, Fleischer is grilled by reporters. His last press briefing is largely taken up with questions about the Niger uranium story and the lead-up to the war:

“QUESTION: Ari, does the President stand by all the statements he made in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq to the American people?

MR. FLEISCHER: I think you've heard what the President has said about the State of the Union remarks, about whether Iraq did or did not seek uranium from Africa. Other than that, of course the President does. And even on that, that is --

QUESTION: And you still think he'll find --

MR. FLEISCHER: -- even on that, that is a judgment that the President has made in hindsight, knowing now what we did not know at the time of the State of the Union. And the President, in retrospect, would not have included that remark in the State of the Union speech, as you know.

QUESTION: He still thinks that Saddam Hussein wanted to become a nuclear power and was trying to get uranium and you will find the weapons of mass destruction?

MR. FLEISCHER: Nothing has changed the President's thinking on that, absolutely.”

Same day -- Senator Bob Graham (D-Fla.) suggests publicly that Bush’s misstatements on Iraq WMD are impeachable.