Colin, Ari, and the State Department Memo

On July 6, 2003, Joe Wilson published his now-infamous column in the NY Times about his trip to Niger, in which he also debunked the Saddam-is-seeking-uranium story and accused the Bush administration of ignoring his findings. The same day, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell requested a report from the Bureau of Intelligence and Research detailing how Wilson came to be dispatched to Niger, and what the role of his wife in said trip was. This memo has been reported as having been taken aboard Air Force One on a trip to Africa shortly thereafter, where Powell and then-White House Press Secretary Ari Fleisher are reported to have reviewed it.

Bloomberg reports (hat tip AMERICAblog):

The memo, prepared by the State Department on July 7, 2003, informed top administration officials that the wife of ex-diplomat and Bush critic Joseph Wilson was a CIA agent. Seven days later, Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was publicly identified as a CIA operative by syndicated columnist Robert Novak.

On the same day the memo was prepared, White House phone logs show Novak placed a call to White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, according to lawyers familiar with the case and a witness who has testified before the grand jury. Those people say it is not clear whether Fleischer returned the call, and Fleischer has refused to comment.

The Novak call may loom large in the investigation because Fleischer was among a group of administration officials who left Washington later that day on a presidential trip to Africa. On the flight to Africa, Fleischer was seen perusing the State Department memo on Wilson and his wife, according to a former administration official who was also on the trip.

In addition, on July 8, 2003, the day after the memo was sent, Novak discussed Wilson and his wife with Rove, who had remained in Washington, according to the New York Times.

It’s really starting to seem like there was no one in the White House who didn’t know about this. Neither Cheney nor Bush have yet to be implicated, but it’s common knowledge that they run an inordinately tight ship, and I find it totally inconceivable that a coordinated effort to discredit Wilson could have involved just about everyone in their immediate circle without their being aware of it. Dodgy stuff, this.