One thing you can count on when the AP reports on the story of the “outing” of the wife of Bush critic and Kerry campaign aide Joe Wilson (the dishonest one, not the apologetic one) is their failure to mention one significant fact about the Democrat’s ballyhooed New York Times article:  he lied.

Now that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Government (CREW) has won its lawsuit against the Department of Justice, it has “received documents related to former Vice President Dick Cheney’s interview with the FBI in the investigation into the leak of Valerie Plame Wilson’s covert CIA identity.”  The AP, as you can guess, ever eager to report a story that could be spun against that good Republican is all over it.  Writer Pete Yost “reports“:

In a New York Times opinion piece in July 2003, Wilson accused the Bush administration of twisting intelligence about Iraq’s efforts to buy a uranium “yellowcake,” in the African nation of Niger. Bush referred to the yellowcake during his Jan. 28, 2003, State of the Union speech to Congress as he was trying to rally support for going to war with Iraq. Yellowcake is a powdered form of uranium that could be used in a nuclear weapon if purified and enriched.

The year before, the CIA had sent Wilson to Niger to determine the accuracy of the uranium reports. Wilson brought back denials of any sale and argued such a sale was not likely to happen.

Um, Pete, since you seem to be quoting from Annenberg’s Political Fact Check report on the matter, why don’t you give us the rest of the paragraph:

But the Intelligence Committee report also reveals that Wilson brought back something else as well — evidence that Iraq may well have wanted to buy uranium.

And let’s not forget this:

But that’s not the way the CIA saw it at the time. In the CIA’s view, Wilson’s report  bolstered suspicions that Iraq was indeed seeking uranium in Africa.

In other words, if anyone was misrepresenting anything here, it was Joe Wilson.  If would be nice if those who cover the story would at least report the fact that this Democratic hack has long since been discredited.

But, then again, that might undermine the media effort to portray the former Vice President in a negative light.

POSTSCRIPT:  In light of the above, let’s recall those famous sixteen words where then-President Bush, in Mr. Wilson’s view, was lying:

The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa .

Emphasis added.  Tthe CIA had concluded that Wilson’s mission confirmed Saddam was doing just that:  seeking uranium from Africa.