U.S. diplomat caught up in Bush-era scandal
Wife outed as CIA agent amid WMD fumble
Joseph Wilson, who has died of organ failure aged 69, was the retired U.S. ambassador whose public criticism of President George W. Bush, for “twisting” pre-war intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction, set off a political scandal that led to the conviction of the vice-presidential aide Lewis “Scooter” Libby for lying to investigators and obstructing justice.
In February 2002 the CIA, at the behest of Vice President Dick Cheney, dispatched Wilson to Niger to investigate claims that the Iraqis had shopped there for “yellowcake” uranium ore that could be processed into weapons-grade material. Wilson reported that the allegations were bogus and that documents relating to the alleged purchase had been forged.
In January the following year, Wilson was astonished to hear the President, in his State of the Union message, claim that “the British government has learnt that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” The claim was used to justify the invasion of Iraq which proceeded in March. As it turned out, no weapons of mass destruction were found.
On July 6 2003, Wilson rebuked Bush for his State of the Union message, and a day later the White House acknowledged that the offending passage had been an “unfortunate mistake.”
And there the matter would probably have rested were it not for the efforts of the conservative pundit Robert Novak who outed Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, as a longtime undercover CIA agent, citing “two senior administration officials” as his sources.
The report sparked a furor in the intelligence community and caused a political storm after Wilson claimed that White House officials had leaked his wife’s true identity as retribution for his criticisms.
In 2006, it emerged that the principal leaker was Richard Armitage, the muchliked deputy to the former Secretary of State, Colin Powell.
Wilson was born on Nov. 6, 1949 in Bridgeport, Conn., but grew up in California, graduating from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1971. From 1988 to 1991 he was deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.