NEW YORK So much has been said and written about the outing of former CIA operative Valerie Plame -- and the cast of characters that swirled around it, from Judith Miller to Karl Rove -- that today, on the fifth anniversary of how it all began, it seems proper to quote the first lines of the fateful Joseph C. Wilson IV op-ed in the July 6, 2003 edition of The New York Times:
"Did the Bush administration manipulate intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons programs to justify an invasion of Iraq? Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat."
Remember its title? "What I Didn't Find in Africa."
People in high places sure paid attention: As we now know, Vice President Cheney marked up a clipping of the op-ed from the paper, wondering if the trip to Africa was "ordinarily" done or "did his wife send him on a junket?"
An article about Wilson's Niger trip and views on the WMD threat appeared the same day in The Washington Post, since Wilson was going fully public with an appearance on "Meet the Press."
More on the story.
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