I recently re-read Novak's piece myself and was struck by the similarites between it and Tenet's subsequent statement.
You do point to an interesting possible confusion amongst officials in the WH, when reacting to the story, about their knowledge of the surfacing of forged documents and how they did or did not play in reality to Wilson's Niger trip.
I know you've seen me often point to the fact that David Kelly was meeting with the BBC around the time Wilson was getting his ball rolling. I remain pretty sure the two plots to accuse Bush and Blair of "lying" to their respective countries about the WMD situation was coordinated.
And this part has never caught my attention before:
The story, actually, is whether the administration deliberately ignored Wilson's advice, and that requires scrutinizing the CIA summary of what their envoy reported. The Agency never before has declassified that kind of information, but the White House would like it to do just that now -- in its and in the public's interest.
Interesting...
The story, actually, is whether the administration deliberately ignored Wilson's advice, and that requires scrutinizing the CIA summary of what their envoy reported. The Agency never before has declassified that kind of information, but the White House would like it to do just that now -- in its and in the public's interest.Read that in light of this:
September 18, 2003Maybe some in the admin leaked supportive documents and people don't like this? Wasn't there a report that the investigators were investigating the revealing of documents? What else could they be????Wilson gives an interview to the TalkingPointsMemo.com
“...TPM: And, just to be clear, at this time (--when he traveled to Niger in 2002--), you hadn't seen these documents that turned out to be forgeries?
WILSON: No, I hadn't. I had just been briefed on a memorandum of agreement covering the sale. Now, my understanding is that there are all sorts of other documents that have since come to light and Andrea Mitchell showed me some documents which I had not seen and frankly, I did not have my glasses, so I didn't even get a chance to read them, and I have not seen them since....