This is an outright lie. The Bush administration never said that Iraq bought nuclear materials from Niger. In the "16 Words", Bush said that British intelligence had learned that Iraqi agents had sought to buy nuclear materials from Africa. Joe Wilson reported that Iraqi agents had attempted to buy nuclear materials from Niger, providing evidence that the British reports upon which President Bush relied were accurate.
The MSM has done nothing more to undermine their own credibility as they have on this story.
Compare two national security stories from the past two years and how they have been reported. There's this story, breathlessly reported as Karl Rove injuring national security because he "outed" a CIA operative, who it turns out was known by her friends, acquaintances and others as working for the CIA.
Compare it to the "Sandy Burglar" story ... no MSM outrage, even though Burglar was stealing documents to change the official position of the Clinton admin relative to terrorism response. He was stuffing them down his pants and former president you-know-who just laughed and said, oh that's just Sandy being Sandy. Thank you MSM for defining hypocrisy for all to see.
an e-mail obtained by the Associated Press,.....
"The White House turned the e-mail over to prosecutors, and Rove testified to a grand jury about it last year. "
If the WH turned the email over to prosecutors and Rove testified to the GJ, and GJ's are secret (supposed to be), I'm curious as to how "AP obtained the e-mail". I doubt the SP gave it to them and why would Rove or Hadley?
It's a coverup, I tell ya! A Bush Administration coverup!
Could minor Ambassador Joe Wilson himself have been the source in blowing his own Wife's cover?
It is distinctly possible, (though it may be unlikely that Joe Wilson himself directly was NY Times Judith Miller's source), since Joe Wilson himself evidently routinely bragged openly to strangers about her CIA employment, prior to such "cover" being "blown" in the press.
Here's an example of Joe's apparently routine and open bragging about Valerie being a "CIA agent," which became known directly to me over a year ago:
He certainly bragged about it per a famous and highly reliable source's (named below) account of his own face-to-face encounter with Amb. Joe Wilson prior to Valerie Plame's "outing" as a CIA agent/employee.
Based upon a personal conversation (we were in a small group eating; it was NOT an "off the record") I had with eminent historian Victor Davis Hanson (we were at a luncheon table together during a trip to Europe), it appeared entirely possible that Joe Wilson himself was the (or one source, if not the original one) possible source in revealing his own wife's status as a CIA agent or employee.
Victor Davis Hanson (Wilson presumably knew Victor Davis Hanson wrote regularly for NRO (National Review Online), had done OpEds for the Wall street Journal, and other publications, and had his own Website with a widespread following) said he (VDH) & Joe Wilson were both in the same "Green Room" before a televised debate-discussion on Iraq, etc. and Joe first warned the TV make-up person not to get powder on his $14,000 Rolex watch, then he bragged to Victor about several things (possessions and trips to Aspen, etc.), like his expensive car (I think it was a Mercedes), and then bragged about his beautiful wife who, Joe Wilson said (braggingly) was a CIA operative.
I asked Victor Davis Hanson Why he didn't write up this account.(?) He replied that Joe Wilson would probably simply deny it, since only he (VDH) & Joe Wilson were in the Green Room together before the broadcast.
However, it is now easy to surmise that Joe Wilson is a crass, materialistic, self-promoting, vain, egotistical, bragaddocio-opportunist, so this account is perfectly consistent with Valerie Plame's TWO photo shoots in Vanity Fair. (Or was it Vogue? No, probably too crass for Vogue, n'est pas?)