Under the headline, Libby 'Told a Dumb Lie,' Prosecutor Says in Closing Argument, the Washington Post repeats the dumber lie.
Wilson turned out to be a potent critic. He had been sent to Niger by the CIA a year earlier to check on reports that Iraq had tried to obtain material for nuclear weapons there, and concluded that the reports were false.
For one thing I'm not sure anyone knows why Joe Wilson was really sent to Niger. Contrary to the what the Washington Post says, the stated reason was not to find if Iraq tried to obtain material for nuclear weapons. The stated reason behind Joe's trip was to find out if Iraq and Niger had actually closed a deal for uranium, and he found that no deal had been made. But as to whether or not Iraq was trying to acquire uranium, here's what George Tenet had to say about Joe's fact finding mission.
In an effort to inquire about certain reports involving Niger, CIA's counter-proliferation experts, on their own initiative, asked an individual with ties to the region to make a visit to see what he could learn. He reported back to us that one of the former Nigerien officials he met stated that he was unaware of any contract being signed between Niger and rogue states for the sale of uranium during his tenure in office. The same former official also said that in June 1999 a businessman approached him and insisted that the former official meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial relations" between Iraq and Niger. The former official interpreted the overture as an attempt to discuss uranium sales.
The excerpt above is from a statement by Tenet dated July 11, 2003. At that time Tenet was the Director of Central Intelligence. In the words of George Tenet we learn that Iraq really had made "an attempt to discuss uranium sales," and that the person who made that discovery was Joe Wilson.
Thirty or forty years ago it would have seemed utterly unthinkable that a professional news organization like the Washington Post would be unable to get this straight. Today, we can be certain the Post is able, but uncertain that the Post is willing. In fact I've long since concluded that the Post is not willing to get that story straight. They seem to be heavily invested in the theme that the Bush Administration lied or "twisted" intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq.
So we're getting that theme again, complete with the standard misrepresentations about what Joe found on his trip to Niger, because I. Lewis Libby, former Chief of Staff for Vice President Richard Cheney, is on trial for perjury and obstruction of justice. It's a convoluted case that purportedly started out as an investigation into the criminal disclosure of a CIA agent's identity, the CIA agent being Joe Wilson's wife. It turns out there was no crime committed. Mrs. Wilson was outed by Richard Armitage of the State Department at the time, a fact that was quickly discovered by investigators.
Unfortunately for all of us, the Special Prosecutor carried on his investigation for two years beyond the discovery of that fact, in hopes of pinning something on somebody at the White House. All he could come up with were several instances where media luminaries Tim Russert, Matt Cooper, and Judith Miller disagreed with Libby over who heard what first about Joe Wilson's wife sending him off to Africa. LIbby's fate will soon be in the hands of the jury.
And the Washington Post would like him convicted. It will be their vindication for reporting the news as they would like to see it. So as the case is about to go to jury, the Post takes a moment to remind us what it's all about. As the Post story goes, a "whistle blower" had stepped forward to refute what President Bush said in his 2003 State of the Union Address: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.'' That story would fall apart if they reported what Joe Wilson actually found in Africa. Iraq really was looking for uranium in Africa.