Intrepid Bloomberg reporters Holly Rosenkrantz* and William Roberts have joined Joseph Wilson’s freelance PR club (“Wilson’s Iraq Assertions Hold Up Under Fire From Rove Backers“). While trying to find instances of truth among the lies, Rosenkrantz and Roberts dig this up:
Bush supporters such as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich contend that Wilson lied in claiming that Vice President Dick Cheney dispatched him on the mission to Niger. That echoes a Republican National Committee talking-points memo sent to party officials.
Wilson never said that Cheney sent him, only that the vice president’s office had questions about an intelligence report that referred to the sale of uranium yellowcake to Iraq from Niger. Wilson, in his New York Times article, said CIA officials were informed of Cheney’s questions.
“The agency officials asked if I would travel to Niger to check out the story so they could provide a response to the vice president’s office,” Wilson wrote.
But as Daily Howler’s Bob Somerby pointed out yesterday, Wilson was on CNN’s “American Morning” the day after his column ran, spinning his straw into golden fabrications:
HEMMER: It’s a wonderful day for us here at American Morning! You went to Niger several years ago. You concluded essentially that Iraq could not buy this uranium from that country. Why not?
WILSON: Well, I went in, actually in February of 2002 was my most recent trip there