About Ambassador Joe - when did he know?

Here's what Ambassador Joe said in his July 6, 2003 New York Times editorial about his trip to Niger:

As for the actual memorandum, I never saw it. But news accounts have pointed out that the documents had glaring errors — they were signed, for example, by officials who were no longer in government — and were probably forged. And then there's the fact that Niger formally denied the charges.

Here's what Susan Schmidt said in her Washington Post article:

The report also said Wilson provided misleading information to The Washington Post last June. He said then that he concluded the Niger intelligence was based on documents that had clearly been forged because "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong."

"Committee staff asked how the former ambassador could have come to the conclusion that the 'dates were wrong and the names were wrong' when he had never seen the CIA reports and had no knowledge of what names and dates were in the reports," the Senate panel said. Wilson told the panel he may have been confused and may have "misspoken" to reporters. The documents -- purported sales agreements between Niger and Iraq -- were not in U.S. hands until eight months after Wilson made his trip to Niger.

This whole situation appears very much contrived, from his being selected to go on his African junket to his being free to editorialize on its supposed results. I wonder if he knows more about the forged documents than he is letting on - like who forged them.