"After consulting with the State Department's African Affairs Bureau (and through it with Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick, the United States ambassador to Niger), I agreed to make the trip. The mission I undertook was discreet but by no means secret. While the C.I.A. paid my expenses (my time was offered pro bono), I made it abundantly clear to everyone I met that I was acting on behalf of the United States government."
By his own admission, Wilson has not been discreet about this mission from the very beginning. One wonders what on earth he expected people to tell him in Niger when he apparently was blabbing about his mission to everyone he met.
Sort of reminds me of Connie Chung's interview of Newt Gingrich's mom. There they are speaking on national TV, and Chung says, "Come on, you can tell me. It's just between you and me."