Not coincidentally, Wilson and his wife Plame made 6 phone calls to Washington journalists that day...both claiming to work for the White House (only somewhat true).
Yesterday, a senior administration official said that before Novak's column ran, two top White House officials called at least six Washington journalists and disclosed the identity and occupation of Wilson's wife. Wilson had just revealed that the CIA had sent him to Niger last year to look into the uranium claim and that he had found no evidence to back up the charge. Wilson's account touched off a political fracas over Bush's use of intelligence as he made the case for attacking Iraq.
"Clearly, it was meant purely and simply for revenge," the senior official said of the alleged leak.
Sources familiar with the conversations said the leakers were seeking to undercut Wilson's credibility. They alleged that Wilson, who was not a CIA employee, was selected for the Niger mission partly because his wife had recommended him. Wilson said in an interview yesterday that a reporter had told him that the leaker said, "The real issue is Wilson and his wife."
A source said reporters quoted a leaker as describing Wilson's wife as "fair game."
The official would not name the leakers for the record and would not name the journalists. The official said there was no indication that Bush knew about the calls.
It is rare for one Bush administration official to turn on another. Asked about the motive for describing the leaks, the senior official said the leaks were "wrong and a huge miscalculation, because they were irrelevant and did nothing to diminish Wilson's credibility."
The alleged senior official and other sources cited above made statements implying they had direct knowledge of the leakers' identities and motive. If these statements were false as now appears to be likely, were the sources of these statements covering up for the actual leaker, and if so what is their relation to the actual leaker?
Frankly, I don't believe anything from the mainstream media that is attributed to an anonymous source. In this case the Wilson's were proven to be politically motivated liars, so now we have to question whether the reporters knew the yellow cake story was a sham or if the reporters were taken in as well.
Not coincidentally, Wilson and his wife Plame made 6 phone calls to Washington journalists that day...both claiming to work for the White House (only somewhat true).
in the Daily Kos interview, Wilson hit again his peculiar obsession to say he had never seen the Niger documents and Andrea Mitchell showed them to him, but he didn't read them because he didn't have his "glasses." It's like he rehearsing an alibi.