The revelation that Bob Woodward met with Richard Armitage around the time Woodward says an administration official told him about Plame has given reporters on the Plame beat an excuse to revive debunked bits of back story and present them as common knowledge. Steve in Indy writes:

Today, in an otherwise fair and evenhanded article about a possible meeting between Bob Woodward and Dick Armitage, the AP repeats the Wilson Niger Lie in the article’s penultimate paragraph: Wilson reported back to the Bush administration that he was unable to verify the claim, but the administration continued to use the information to bolster its argument for war. Wilson has cited the decision to rely on the bad intelligence in his criticisms of the administration.

Repeat after me: Wilson reported back to the CIA, and the report based on his debrief very much indicated that Iraq had sought uranium from Niger. From the SSCI report:

The intelligence report indicated that former Nigerien Prime Minister Ibrahim Mayaki was unaware of any contracts that had been signed between Niger and any rogue states for the sale of yellowcake while he was Prime Minister (1997-1999) or Foreign Minister (1996-1997). Mayaki said that if there had been any such contract during his tenure, he would have been aware of it. Mayaki said, however, that in June 1999,( ) businessman, approached him and insisted that Mayaki meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss “expanding commercial relations” between Niger and Iraq. The intelligence report said that Mayaki interpreted “expanding commercial relations” to mean that the delegation wanted to discuss uranium yellowcake sales. The intelligence report also said that “although the meeting took place, Mayaki let the matter drop due to the UN sanctions on Iraq.”

How come the AP can get access to Richard Armitage’s calendar and not a government report that’s readily available online?

Media Blog contributor Nathan Goulding adds:

“Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has investigated whether Bush administration officials intentionally revealed Plame’s identity as a one-time CIA covert operative to punish her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, for criticizing the administration’s march to war with Iraq.”
No mention that Patrick Fitzgerald ALREADY investigated this and found that this wasn’t the case.

One addition to Nate’s point: Fitzgerald was investigating whether anyone violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, not whether anyone set out to “punish” Joe Wilson. That line was concocted by Wilson himself and pushed relentlessly by his friends on the left. Almost every reporter who’s testified in this case has said that government officials disclosed Wilson’s wife’s name only after they were asked about the origins of Wilson’s trip. But neither that nor other facts seem to change the media’s consistent misreporting on this story.