Several readers sent me emails along these lines:

Jonah,
The email you just posted is not accurate. There seems to be the perception that Joe Wilson said in his op-ed that Cheney asked him to go on the CIA trip to Niger. Here is the relevant passage from the actual op-ed:
“In February 2002, I was informed by officials at the Central Intelligence Agency that Vice President Dick Cheney’s office had questions about a particular intelligence report. While I never saw the report, I was told that it referred to a memorandum of agreement that documented the sale of uranium yellowcake — a form of lightly processed ore — by Niger to Iraq in the late 1990’s. The agency officials asked if I would travel to Niger to check out the story so they could provide a response to the vice president’s office.”

Me: Personally, I think a fair reading of the above would show that Wilson was trying to put Dick Cheney’s fingerprints on his trip. There are countless ways to write the above without mentioning Cheney at all or without leaving that impression. I think it was deliberately phrased this way to leave that impression without being an outright lie. But, again, that’s my own view.