New handwritten notes by the Vice President on a copy of Joe Wilson’s July 6 op-ed show that Cheney personally raised questions about Wilson's trip right after the publication of the Wilson column, asking whether “Wilson had been sent by his wife on a 'junket' to Africa. As the Fitzgerald investigation continues, the American people are finding out the true lengths that the Bush Administration went to in order to squash criticism as they planned their campaign for war. To recap the events that have led to this we take a look at the Administration’s initial smear campaign to discredit Joe Wilson for questioning the White House’s use of intelligence, the subsequent leak of Wilson’s wife’s identity as retribution and in an effort to further discredit him, and the cover-up campaign that the White House ran to try and keep its involvement out of the public eye.
The Timeline of a Leak