MEDIOCRE RESEARCH

Yup, I'm talking about me. I was probably first told to go to the original source and read all of it when I was in high school but I have all too often neglected to do so. For example, I have not read all of Novak's original column that outed Plame, so I missed this:

NOVAK:Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report.

(Thanx to MediaMatters for bringing this to my attention)

Two points came immediately to mind:

1) The report that Wilson was sent to check out was not identified as being from the Italians. According to the SSCI report, the source is identified only as "foreign government service."
However, the "CIA sent a separate version of the assessment to the Vice President which differed only in that it named the foreign government service"

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/congress/2004_rpt/iraq-wmd-intell_chapter2.htm

2) If by "Italian report" Novak or his sources meant the forged documents, then they were wrong. Wilson's trip occurred months before the U.S. got the forged documents.