May 2003 – Joseph Wilson begins advising the Kerry campaign on foreign policy issues. ( White House expects calls… ,” USA Today, October 2003).
May 6, 2003 – A New York Times columnist writes the first account of Wilson' s trip, but not naming him: “I'm told by a person involved in the Niger caper that more than a year ago the vice president's office asked for an investigation of the uranium deal, so a former U.S. ambassador to Africa was dispatched to Niger . In February 2002, according to someone present at the meetings, that envoy reported to the C.I.A. and State Department that the information was unequivocally wrong.” (" Missing In Action: Truth, ” New York Times, Op-ed, May 2003).
Duh! Would not be too hard for Andrea and her crowd to check out former U.S. ambassadors to Africa.
True, but its hard to believe that despite incessently searching to determine who was behind the Africa stories, he conveniently "forgets" that his boss Cheney told him about Wilson and his wife. He forgets that two people at the CIA (one upper level and the other his briefing agent) both told him the same information. He forgets that the CIA faxed him a written statement concerning the identity of Wilson and the fact that his wife sent him to Africa. He forgot that an Assistant Secretary of State fed him the same information. Then he forgets that he discussed this information in six other meetings including one with Ari Fleischer, Press Secretary, a week prior to the conversation with Russert. Seems awfuly convenient that someone who is supposedly motivated to find out who is behind these stories about the 16 words and Africa, once they found out from numerous credible sources and discussed what to do about it with numerous other people would all of a sudden "forget" everything that had occured in the few weeks before hand. People with memory that bad would not be in top level positions in the White House.