Truth Out: Plame, Wilson, Iraq, Niger, Nuke

(Nadir and Tom: Have you guys ever changed your mind about one of your conclusions? Or have you adhered to the same set of beliefs for the past 20 years?)

"The twin allegations of a false story exposed by Wilson and then of a state-run vendetta undertaken against him and the lady wife who dispatched him on the mission—are in irretrievable ruins. The truth is the exact polar opposite. The original Niger connection was both authentic and important, and Wilson's utter failure to grasp it or even examine it was not enough to make Karl Rove even turn over in bed. All the work of the supposed 'outing' was inadvertently performed by Wilson's admirer Robert Novak. ... it is high time that [the facts] received one-millionth of the attention that the 'Plamegate' farce has garnered.

"In February 1999 one of Saddam Hussein's chief nuclear goons paid a visit to Niger, but his identity was not noticed by Joseph Wilson, nor emphasized in his [oral] 'report' to the CIA, nor mentioned at all in his later memoir. British intelligence picked up the news of the Zahawie visit from French and Italian sources and passed it on to Washington."

The only written report that Joe Wilson filed was his NYT op-ed piece. It appears that his "investigation" was cursory and non-serious. His conclusion cannot constitute the final word on the matter... or even an authoritative one. One can make a plausable case that *he* outed his own wife (to the extent that she was "outed" at all), whereas facts now preclude any reasonable assertion that Bushies did. And we can't any longer take seriously Wilson's conclusion about Iraqi-Niger Nuke deals based on his unpaid weekend trip to Niger.