You can be sure Wilson had been in Africa many times from the 1970s to 2002, just read:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1256475/posts
What Joe Wilson Doesn't Say About Africa
Now bookmarked along with two other threads that provide the ultimate Plamegate Reader.
Set up? Anatomy of the contrived Wilson "scandal", by Wolfstar (10/2/03)
Joseph Wilson, Niger, Uranium and Bush’s Famous Sixteen Words: Evolution of a Confused Story, by Shermy (4/16/04)
It is clear to any who might read these threads that FReepers have invested more effort in trying to untangle Plamegate and have more knowledge of the case than has anybody in the MSM.
January 22, 2003 -- At about the same time as the President delivers his "sixteen words" in the SOTU, Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV is giving a lecture at his alma mater, University of California at Santa Barbara, in which he essentially agrees with the President!
In this speech and in a "recent" op-ed in the San Jose Mercury-News, Joe Wilson is claiming that there are two reasons NOT to go to war with Iraq:
1. Saddam Hussein has WMD.
2. He will use them.
See Former Diplomat To Give Views On Possible War With Iraq at UCSB, a UCSB Press Release promoting a 1/22/03 lecture (and referencing a “recent” San Jose Mercury News opinion piece by Wilson), January 16, 2003.
So, eleven months after his trip to Niger, Wilson believes Saddam has WMD and will use them. There is no record of a 180 degree reversal until May -- when he starts his campaign of leaks by breakfasting with Nicholas Kristof and after he has joined the Kerry campaign!
July 2, 2003 -- The BBC publishes a story promoting the mysterious "anonymous American diplomat who went to Niger and discovered that Bush's 'sixteen words' in the State of the Union address had no basis in fact".
The Beeb's source was listed as "a CIA employee". Larry Johnson? Miss Valerie?
July 8, 2003 -- Doug Thompson of Capitol Hill Blue prints an incendiary piece -- "White House admits Bush lied about Iraqi nukes" -- which goes much further than Wilson's July 6 op-ed for the New York Times. His source for this melodrama was "a CIA operative" named Terrance J. Wilkinson.
Subsequently, Thompson is forced to withdraw his claims and modify his position, thanks to research by the FReeper William McKinley who proves that the person described as Terrance J. Wilkinson never existed (well, after all, he was "CIA"). The story is withdrawn from the CHB archives and Thompson writes a mea culpa -- Conned Big Time, Doug Thompson, Capitol Hill Blue, July 9, 2003.
"Wilkinson" or whoever it was that sourced the story to Thompson is obviously in cahoots with Wilson (Larry Johnson?), given the timeline and corroborative material provided. We have a conspiracy...
For a more complete discussion of this event, see Fedora's #247.
I submit that the true identity of "Terrance J. Wilkinson" -- apparently a fiction based on fact -- would provide another link in a conspiracy cynically designed to use the media to discredit the President of the United States.
There are chicken tracks all over Plamegate. Most of them left by the vaunted CIA...