He actually confirmed Bush's charge, that Iraq "sought" uranium, but you would not know that to listen to him squeal. Iraq's trade mission to Niger was public information. It doesn't even rely on British intel, its public. No one disputes it. And according to Wilson, according to Tenet, the Iraqis followed that mission with further efforts.
He also claimed that the transaction couldn't take place because the mines are under IAEA inspection. But IAEA says they don't have the personnel to monitor them, and they don't have the legal authority to monitor them. Meaning, they aren't being effectively monitored by IAEA.
Wilson is a liar, and not a very good one. His histrionics only work because no one from the press puts him under any close scrutiny. Before giving him any further credibility, someone should ask him how you investigate uranium sales without auditing company records, interviewing plant personnel, following the trucks to see where they go, staking out the port to see which ships they load in to, and verifying where those ships actually go. How do you do that in a one-week visit in which you never left the capital.
And the CIA should have to answer why they would send someone like this to do a non-investigation. Do they have no assets in Niger devoted to doing this work? Do they have no people on the ground in a West African country that has attracted Al Qaeda interest as a potential refuge, Libyan interest, and is a uranium producer? Is that why the closest thing to a Niger expert they can find is a guy who was there 20 years ago?
I would like to hear some discussion of this apparent admission on their part that we are terribly exposed in that part of the world.
Could minor Ambassador Joe Wilson himself have been the source in blowing his own Wife's cover?
It is distinctly possible, (though it may be unlikely that Joe Wilson himself directly was NY Times Judith Miller's source), since Joe Wilson himself evidently routinely bragged openly to strangers about her CIA employment, prior to such "cover" being "blown" in the press.
Here's an example of Joe's apparently routine and open bragging about Valerie being a "CIA agent," which became known directly to me over a year ago:
He certainly bragged about it per a famous and highly reliable source's (named below) account of his own face-to-face encounter with Amb. Joe Wilson prior to Valerie Plame's "outing" as a CIA agent/employee.
Based upon a personal conversation (we were in a small group eating; it was NOT an "off the record") I had with eminent historian Victor Davis Hanson (we were at a luncheon table together during a trip to Europe), it appeared entirely possible that Joe Wilson himself was the (or one source, if not the original one) possible source in revealing his own wife's status as a CIA agent or employee.
Victor Davis Hanson (Wilson presumably knew Victor Davis Hanson wrote regularly for NRO (National Review Online), had done OpEds for the Wall street Journal, and other publications, and had his own Website with a widespread following) said he (VDH) & Joe Wilson were both in the same "Green Room" before a televised debate-discussion on Iraq, etc. and Joe first warned the TV make-up person not to get powder on his $14,000 Rolex watch, then he bragged to Victor about several things (possessions and trips to Aspen, etc.), like his expensive car (I think it was a Mercedes), and then bragged about his beautiful ("hot") wife who, Joe Wilson said (braggingly) was a CIA operative.
I asked Victor Davis Hanson Why he didn't write up this account.(?) He replied that Joe Wilson would probably simply deny it, since only he (VDH) & Joe Wilson were in the Green Room together before the broadcast.
However, it is now easy to surmise that Joe Wilson is a crass, materialistic, self-promoting, vain, egotistical, bragaddocio-opportunist, so this account is perfectly consistent with Valerie Plame's TWO photo shoots in Vanity Fair. (Or was it Vogue? No, probably too crass for Vogue, n'est pas?)