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Revision as of 06:25, 21 April 2004 by MisfitToys (talk | contribs) (bold)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Joseph C. Wilson IV was a United States career foreign service officer and diplomat from 1976 to 1998. He served as ambassador to Gabon and São Tomé and Príncipe under President George H. W. Bush, and as a director of Africa policy for the National Security Council under President William Jefferson Clinton. In 1990, he also became the last American diplomat to meet with Saddam Hussein.
Wilson achieved wide notoriety due to his involvement in the verification of intellgence regarding Iraq. In 2002 he was sent to Niger to investigate the possibility that uranium yellowcake had been sold to Iraq. Since uranium mining is managed by an international consortium and supervised by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Wilson concluded this was unlikely.
Controversy ensued when the British government issued a white paper asserting an imminent threat from Iraq, on the basis of the Niger claim, and President Bush referred to this white paper in his State of the Union Address. Wilson criticized the President and shortly thereafter an anonymous source leaked his wife's identity (Valerie Plame - a CIA agent) to reporter Robert Novak. Wilson accused the Bush administration of attempting to discredit and intimidate him. The U.S. Congress has set up an inquiry to determine who was involved with the leak, headed by U.S. Attorney Patrick J Fitzgerald. U.S. law makes it a felony to reveal the name of an undercover agent.