October -- Congress gives the President authority to wage war in Iraq.
January -- In the SOTU, the President utters those sixteen words. Nothing happens.
Early March -- The "Niger documents" are revealed to be forgeries. Nothing happens.
Late June -- Joseph Wilson op-ed is published in the New York Times. He claims he had been sent to Niger in February, interviewed the proper officials and sundry baggage agents, all of whom protested their innocence, and he had reported accordingly to the CIA. Nothing happened then. It turns out, in fact, that his report never got beyond his superior's desk. And nothing happened after his Times expose' either.
July 8 -- Based on the statements of one Terrence J. Wilkinson, who purported to "be there" when Wilson's memo was presented in the Oval Office, Doug Thompson publishes his J'Accuse in CHB. Quickly, Wilkinson's story (as well as Wilkinson himself) is proven a complete lie. But, now and only now, all hell breaks loose!
With the impetus that the President had forcibly dismissed a CIA-commissioned report, the story races around the world. Every major network, newspaper and news magazine hops on the story -- there is virtually no attribution to CHB and NO mention of Terrence J. Wilkinson. When CHB backtracks and retracts, the story shifts and the original inflammatory accusations are edited out. Instead, they begin to report response to the original report...and momentum gathers behind "Bush lied".
In other words, in my opinion, the whole escapade was a carefully planned agitprop operation in which Doug Thompson and CHB were unwitting tools. After over three months of lying fallow, somebody (employed by someone) found a way for the Niger operation to gain traction. Without Terrence J. Wilkinson, none of this would've happened!
It was a major operation bent on one purpose -- breathing life into what was a dead story.
Doug, any idea on who he was? Or, more importantly, who he was working for? The DNC? The Clintons? Russia? France? China...???
William, have you turned up anything yet?