See if you can tell what’s missing from this Associated Press story about the release of an FBI overview of a Dick Cheney interview during the CIA leak case. There are obvious mistakes — the reporter repeats the myth that Joe Wilson cast doubt on CIA reports about Iraq-Niger uranium claims when he returned from Niger, when in fact the CIA actually thought Wilson’s reporting, to the extent that it was meaningful, enhanced the credibility of those earlier reports — but I’m looking for an omission. In his review of the episode, the writer gets so carried away with his attempt to make it look like Cheney was behind the leak — “In the FBI’s interview, Cheney’s memory of key events appeared hazy” or “Cheney’s occasional denials that he talked about Plame to various people at the White House are among the few things in the lengthy interview with the FBI that Cheney appeared certain about” — that he forgets the single most important piece of information about the case. What is it? The identity of the leaker: Richard Armitage.
