I accuse

Joseph Wilson, author of "The Politics of Truth," talks about his prime suspect in the White House smear campaign against him and his wife.

By Joe Conason

May 3, 2004 | After serving in the American diplomatic corps for more than two decades, Joseph Wilson had retired from the Foreign Service in 1998 to enjoy his new family and pursue a second career as an international businessman. In February 2002, his government called on him to undertake a sensitive mission to the West African nation of Niger, which had allegedly agreed to ship uranium to Saddam Hussein's Iraq. He quickly agreed to handle the task without pay or credit.

When he boarded the plane for Niger, Wilson could not have imagined how profoundly that trip would change his life and that of his wife, Valerie Plame -- nor how its consequences would disgrace the Bush administration, whose retaliatory actions against Wilson and Plame are still under investigation by a Justice Department special counsel.

He knew firsthand that the 16 infamous words in the president's 2003 State of the Union address -- "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa" -- were false. He refused to remain silent as the nation was misled into war.

In his candid new memoir, "The Politics of Truth," Wilson tells the story of that episode in great detail, but he also reveals himself as a moderate man driven to battle with extremists and liars. Growing up in a conservative Republican family in California, he rose to ambassadorial posts through merit and hard work, not as a political appointee.

Always more interested in policy than politics, Wilson served both Democratic and Republican administrations in various diplomatic posts throughout Africa, and eventually as ambassador to Gabon in West Africa. Before his clash with the White House, Wilson's most difficult test had come during Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990, when he was acting ambassador to Baghdad. His courage and resourcefulness in confronting Saddam and protecting the Americans under his care elicited the highest praise from his superiors -- including the first President Bush, who called Wilson "a true American hero."

Wilson would live to hear himself portrayed quite differently by Republican attackers after his break with the White House. They called him a "playboy" and an "asshole," and denigrated his diplomatic record. While those personal attacks were obnoxious, what astonished Wilson was the decision by senior administration officials to expose Plame, who worked undercover for the CIA to stem the spread of weapons of mass destruction around the world. Now he strikes back in a book that urges his fellow citizens to defend democracy against the unscrupulous officials who placed their own political power above the nation's security.

As your new book comes out, the Justice Department investigation of what I no longer hesitate to call the conspiracy against your wife seems to be in a hiatus. Can you talk about what's going on with the investigation? Do you know?

First of all, I think you're absolutely right that it's appropriate to call this a conspiracy, by people very close to the center of power in the United States, who decided that their political agenda was more important than the national security of the country. Now with respect to the investigation, I don't know, but I will say that I have absolute confidence in the seriousness of purpose and the efforts of both the special counsel, Patrick Fitzgerald, and the FBI team that is working with him.

What is appalling to me in all of this is that the president said early on that he wanted to get to the bottom of this -- and yet the people who work for the president did not heed his call and step forward. Instead they're stonewalling, and appear ready to stonewall against his instructions indefinitely. Either he didn't mean what he said, or else he doesn't have authority over his senior staff, or they're simply insubordinate.

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