The earliest I'm aware of Wilson being in contact with McGovern is June 2003 when they spoke jointly at a lecture to the Education for Peace in Iraq Center (EPIC). I don't know if they had any contact before that. Wilson first seems to have started working with left-wing antiwar forces between June 2002 (when he joined former ambassador to Morocco Marc Ginsberg's Alliance for American Leadership--Ginsberg like Wilson having a background in advising on Middle Eastern investments) and October 2002 (when he wrote his first article on the Iraq debate for the San Jose Mercury); McGovern's Veterans Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) was formed in January 2003, and I don't know what he was doing before that or if it crossed Wilson's path. But in relation to the Palestinian angle, Wilson may have developed his views on Palestinian-Israeli issues during the 1988-1997 period when his assignments included Iraq and political advisor to the United States European Command in Germany, where he helped provide support to US/UK/Turkish operations in northern Iraq. During these assignments Wilson developed relationships with Turkish intelligence, military, and business figures who had negative views on Israel and its alleged influence on US Middle Eastern policy. Wilson and Turkish General Cevik Bir expressed similar views on Iraq when they spoke together at events held by the American-Turkish Council (ATC). It seems likely this context also shaped Wilson's views on Israel and Palestine, so his interest in this area may have predated his relationship with McGovern.
BTW thanks for the comments on the definition of undercover status above--useful clarification.
PS: I meant to add, shortly after 9/11 Wilson and Brent Scowcroft began discussing their concerns about what they perceived as growing "neo-con" influence in the administration's foreign policy, which would be another indicator his views on Palestine predated his association with McGovern in 2003.
I think Wilson got hooked up with McGovern and other VIPS when Plame was working for Alan Foley at WINPAC. McGovern and Foley were friends and both had been Soviet analysts at the CIA. VIPS officially formed in January 2003, but loosely began to associate and get together the previous year. My gut told me McGovern and VIPS are behind much of this and that's the trail I've been following--even before the Wilson op-ed hit the Times. Since March 2003 or so he's been parroting openly and anonymously their lines about cooked intelligence.
I do believe Wilson's trip began legitimately (he also made one in 1999), which would explain why he didn't comment on the "16 words" in interviews after the SOTU address. I don't think it was a set-up for future use and the explanation about not being sure they were talking about Niger was cooked up when they came up with the idea to use trip.
I found something interesting that might support that when I checked to see what McGovern has been up to lately. Back in 2003, McGovern said of Foley:
"I have worked with Alan Foley. He is cut of the same cloth as Ambassador Wilson. I am betting that the White House's latest preemptive strike will not deter Foley and other intelligence officials able to put conscience and integrity before career from following Wilson's example. "
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1003-11.htm
He said it should get "interesting". I guess he expected Foley to come out with explosive accusations and revelations about cooked intel?
Yet this past spring he's been saying:
"The result? Many bright analysts quit rather than take part in cooking intelligence-to-go. In contrast, those inspired by Gates' example followed suit and saw their careers flourish. So much so that when in September 2002 Tenet asked his senior managers to prepare a National Intelligence Estimate parroting what Cheney had been saying about the weapons-of-mass-destruction threat from Iraq, they saluted and fell to the task. Several of them traced their career advancement to Robert Gates.
Folks like John McLaughlin, who now "doesn't remember" being told about the charlatan source code-named "Curveball" in time enough to warn Colin Powell before he made a fool of himself and his country at the U.N., while the whole world watched. Folks like National Inteligence Officer Larry Gershwin, who gave a pass to Curveball's drivel and similar nonsense; and Alan Foley, who led the misbegotten analytical efforts on the celebrated but non-nuclear-related aluminum tubes headed for Iraq, and fictitious Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium from Niger. Folks like the CIA Inspector General, John Helgerson, who bowed to pressure from the White House and from McLaughlin to suppress the exhaustive IG report on 9/11, which is a goldmine of names-of both intelligence officials and policymakers-who bungled the many warnings that such an attack was coming. Folks like the senior intelligence official who told me last month, "We were not politicized; we just thought it appropriate to ‘lean forward,' given White House concern over Iraq." "
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/38/10642
And here without naming him:
"Also included among the players in 2002 are the obedient national intelligence officer who blessed the insertion of the biological warfare drivel and other nonsense into the NIE, and the manager who supervised misbegotten analytical efforts regarding the non-nuclear-related aluminum tubes headed for Iraq, as well as the reports on Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium from Niger reports based on crude forgeries."
http://mideastcenter.org/mcgovern05262005.html
Sounds like McGovern is now saying Foley was behind the idea that Iraq was trying to buy yellowcake and was trying very much to prove it. What happened between McGovern and Foley in the past two years to cause this rift?
I don't know what his views were on Arab/Israeli issues during most of his foreign service career. I've just noticed that in the past 3 years he seems to focus more and more on that as the main reason for the administration's intent to go to war. Many of the VIPS members are virulently anti-Israel and that doesn't fit in with Marc Ginsberg or Wilson's earlier interviews and writings.
I suspect we can't take Wilson's foreign postings at face value--during the majority of his career, he focused on Africa and, specifically, gained expertise in mining. He also worked at NSC. His assignment to Iraq--I don't know--I wonder if it was more about his background in mining than interest in Middle Eastern diplomacy. I'm not going to take it as fact that he was actually part of the State Department's foreign service staff.