Doug Ross @ Journal

Hitchens slams the door shut on Wilson

Christopher Hitchens, writing in Slate, has nailed the credibility coffin shut on the ridiculous Joe Wilson in, "Case Closed: The truth about the Iraqi-Niger "yellowcake" nexus. The eyewitness evidence is incontrovertible:

...In February 1999 one of Saddam Hussein's chief nuclear goons paid a visit to Niger, but his identity was not noticed by Joseph Wilson, nor emphasized in his "report" to the CIA, nor mentioned at all in his later memoir. British intelligence picked up the news of the Zahawie visit from French and Italian sources and passed it on to Washington... ...This means that both pillars of the biggest scandal-mongering effort yet mounted by the "anti-war" movement—the twin allegations of a false story exposed by Wilson and then of a state-run vendetta undertaken against him and the lady wife who dispatched him on the mission—are in irretrievable ruins. The truth is the exact polar opposite. The original Niger connection was both authentic and important, and Wilson's utter failure to grasp it or even examine it was not enough to make Karl Rove even turn over in bed. All the work of the supposed "outing" was inadvertently performed by Wilson's admirer Robert Novak. Of course, one defends the Bush administration at one's own peril... ...But the facts are still the facts, and it is high time that they received one-millionth of the attention that the "Plamegate" farce has garnered...

That Hitchens! What a dreamer!

It's fascinating to me that Wilson maintains a shred of credibility with the "reality-based community," when his stories are just a little less sturdy than cardboard left soaking in a tub for hours. If you look up "debunked" in the dictionary, odds are good you'll see Joe Wilson's mug staring back at you.