Brit Hume just said Plame was the one who notified Joe Wilson that he was assigned the trip to Niger. She started with "There's this crazy report (about Saddam wanting to buy uranium from Niger)."
Page 39:
http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/13jul20041400/www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/creports/pdf/s108-301/sec2.pdf
The lawyer for top White House adviser Karl Rove says that Time reporter Matthew Cooper "burned" Rove after a conversation between the two men concerning former ambassador Joseph Wilson's fact-finding mission to Niger and the role Wilson's wife, CIA employee Valerie Plame, played in arranging that trip. Nevertheless, attorney Robert Luskin says Rove long ago gave his permission for all reporters, including Cooper, to tell prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald about their conversations with Rove.
Maybe it does help because it implies it wasnt Rove who gave last minute permission.
Thanks for the link. I liked this part:
"...becasue INR analysts did not believe that Niger would be likely to engage in such a transaction and did not believe Niger would be able to transfer uranium to Iraq because a French consortium maintained control of the Nigerien uranium industry."
A French consortium maintained control. I wonder if it was the same French consortium that received the oil-for-food bribes???
Glad you're on the case setting out what has been out there all this time.