Russert:... Why do you believe, a week after that op-ed piece and an appearance on Meet the Press, your wife was identified as a CIA agent?
Wilson: Well, let me make two points, first of all. One, there are two uncontested facts in this matter. The first is the 16 words in the State of the Union address which were not substantiated by the facts as the U.S. government knew them at the time. [This is true - Tenet said he didn't know the British intel and for that reason the sixteen words should not have been in the speech] And the second is the leak of a CIA operative who just happens to be my wife. Now, they’re linked because—I wrote this opinion piece several months after the U.S. government itself had come out and said they were duped by information that the State Department had given to the International Atomic Energy Agency and Dr. ElBaradei had said were obvious forgeries. [Remember, he didn't mention El Baradei or the documents in his editorial - that was a later slant] Now, they’re linked because—I wrote this opinion piece several months after the U.S. government itself had come out and said they were duped by information that the State Department had given to the International Atomic Energy Agency and Dr. ElBaradei had said were obvious forgeries.
Russert: From the International...
Wilson: ...Atomic Energy Agency, the head of that agency, IAEA. When the State Department said, “We were duped by that information,” that was a misstatement of fact because I knew that there were at least three reports pertaining to this particular case: ["Case" means Niger, not Bush's 16 words] mine, but also the report of our ambassador on the scene and, also, the report of the deputy commander in chief of U.S. Armed Forces Europe, a four star Marine Corps general, all of whom had gone down to take a look at this allegation and all of whom had reported that it was not true. There was one report, which turned out to be a forged document, which was so dicey that even an Italian weekly tabloid magazine would not use it. And yet it was that report that formed the basis for the 16 words in the State of the Union address.[Wilson surprises me here. This is an obvious lie. Elsewhere he was cautious in his language but allowed interviewers to make this inferrence]