July 5

• A male senior administration official tells Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus that Joseph Wilson's mission to Africa originated within the CIA's clandestine service after Vice President Dick Cheney aides raised questions during a briefing. "It was not orchestrated by the vice president," the official says. Also according to the official, the trip was reported in a routine way, and the report did not mention Wilson's name and did not say anything about forgeries. (WaPo)

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Wilson's op-ed published

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July 6

• The New York Times publishes an Op-Ed article by Joseph Wilson titled "What I Didn't Find in Africa", criticizing Bush's remarks on Iraq yellowcake purchase in Niger as relying on forged documents. He states the CIA provided this intelligence to the White House prior to the SOTU in Jan '03.

Wilson also appears on Meet the Press, interviewed by Andrea Mitchell, and is quoted on the record about the trip in an article by Richard Leiby and Walter Pincus in the Washington Post.

• In response, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage calls INR director Carl Ford at home, seeking explanation and background on the Wilson-Niger claims. Armitage asks Ford to forward this information to Secretary of State Colin Powell. (AP, NYT, WaPo)

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July 7

• The White House retracts the Niger allegation, which is its sole admission to date of a flaw in the case for war, which was built on charges of an illegal Iraqi arsenal that has not been found.

• White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer states at a press gaggle that the Vice President had not requested Wilson's trip, had not been aware of it, and had not seen the results. (White House)

• After being called at home, State Department's then-intelligence chief, Carl Ford gets the INR to work on providing Powell the requested information and the June 10 memo, either because he remembers the memo, or Armitage does. (Bloomberg)

• The State Department's June 10 INR memo is located and copied. It says Joseph Wilson had been approved for the Niger trip by mid-level CIA officials on the recommendation of his wife, a counter-proliferation expert at the CIA. (Bloomberg)

• Robert Novak places a call to Ari Fleischer according to White House phone logs. It is not clear whether Fleischer returned the call, and Fleischer has refused to comment. (Bloomberg)

• At lunch, Scooter Libby tells Fleischer that Wilson's wife works at the CIA, and that the information is not widely known (Libby Indictment, p. 7; Fitzgerald affadavit, pp. 2, 12; Tatel opinion, p. 32). Fleischer will testify that the conversation was "weird".

• Evening - Bush leaves for his trip to Africa.

• Carl Ford orders the copy of the original memo, along with the analyst's notes about that meeting, be sent to Powell. Ordinarily, the memo would have been transmitted directly to Powell over the State Department's secure communications lines. But because Powell was traveling with Bush aboard Air Force One, the memo is transmitted via the White House operations center. (LA Times)

• Colin Powell is seen walking around Air Force One with the INR memo (NYT). Powell circulated the memo among those traveling with him in the front section of Air Force One (LA Times). Press Secretary Ari Fleischer at some point during the flight sees the memo (Bloomberg).

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On or before July 8

• Dick Cheney aide Catherine Martin tells Scooter Libby that Wilson's wife works at the CIA. (Libby Indictment, p. 7)

• "People at the CIA" tell Andrea Mitchell that "high-level people at the CIA did not really know that it was false, never even looked at Joe Wilson's verbal report or notes from that report, didn't even know that it was he who had made this report, because he was sent over by some of the covert operatives in the CIA at a very low level, not, in fact, tasked by the vice president." (Capital Report)

A Reuters reporter is fed a similar story: "A U.S. intelligence official said Wilson was sent to investigate the Niger reports by mid-level CIA officers, not by top-level Bush administration officials. There is no record of his report being flagged to top level officials, the intelligence official said." (Josh Marshall)

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July 8

• White House officials assemble a briefing book, which they fax to the Bush entourage in Africa in order to allow Condoleezza Rice to prepare on the long flight home to D.C for appearances on the Sunday talks shows upon her return from Africa. This briefing book was primarily prepared by her National Security Council staff. It contains classified information — perhaps including all or part of the memo from State. The entire binder is labeled TOP SECRET. (Newsweek)

• Scooter Libby meets with New York Times reporter Judith Miller over a two-hour breakfast the St. Regis Hotel in Washington, D.C., and discusses CIA operative Valerie Plame (Libby Indictment p. 7, NYT). Libby will testify that the purpose of the meeting is to disclose information from the NIE to Miller, and that the disclosure was authorized by his superiors (OSC letter, p. 6).

• Libby asks Counsel to the Vice President David Addington what paperwork would exist at the CIA if an employee's spouse undertook an overseas trip. (Libby Indictment p. 7; Fitzgerald affadavit, p. 12)

• Novak calls Karl Rove at the White House, ostensibly about a story on the promotion of Frances Fragos Townsend. Mr. Novak turns to the subject of Ms. Wilson, identifying her by the name Valerie Wilson. Novak claims to Mr. Rove that he knows that Joseph Wilson had been sent on the trip to Niger at the urging of Ms. Wilson. (NYT)

Rove responds by saying "Oh, you know about it." (Townhall)

In Rove's version of events he responds by saying "I heard that, too." (WaPo)

• Late Afternoon - Robert Novak talks to a nominative stranger (a friend of Wilson) who approaches him on the way to taping Crossfire, that he believes that Wilson's wife had something to do with Wilson's appointment to investigate the yellowcake claim in Africa.

My friend, without revealing that he knew me, asked Novak about the Uranium controversy. It was a minor problem, Novak replied, and opined that the administration should have dealt with it weeks before. My friend then asked Novak what he thought about me, and Novak answered: "Wilson's an asshole. The CIA sent him. His wife, Valerie [Plame], works for the CIA. She's a weapons of mass destruction specialist. She sent him."[1]

• Wilson's friend goes directly to Wilson's office and they document the exchange.

• Wilson contacts Eason Jordan, the head of the news division at CNN, and Novak’s titular boss, about the exchange.