8 July 2003: Robert Novak, after being told of Valerie Plame Wilson's identity by an unspecified senior Bush administration official, has phone conversation with Karl Rove in which C.I.A. agent Plame is dicussed. Novak is reported to have told Rove the name of the agent and her role in Joe Wilson's mission to Africa. Rove is reported to have told Novak something to the effect of, 'I heard that, too.' or 'Oh, so you already know about it.'. Rove reportedly told the grand jury that at this time he had already heard about Joe Wilson's wife working for the CIA from another journalist, but is unable to remember who that was. 
Sometime on 11 July, 2003: Veteran conservative commentator Robert Novak's regular syndicated column is distributed by Creators Syndicate on the AP wire. The exact timing of the release of Novak's column is not known. 


11 July, 2003, 11:07 a.m: Rove spoke to Time Magazine reporter Matt Cooper about Joe Wilson's wife being a CIA agent. Cooper e-mailed his bureau chief. "Spoke to Rove on double super secret background for about two mins before he went on vacation ..." . Cooper wrote that Rove offered him a "big warning" not to "get too far out on Joe Wilson." Rove told Cooper that Joe Wilson's trip had not been authorized by "DCIA"—CIA Director George Tenet—or Vice President Dick Cheney. Rather, "it was, KR said, Joe Wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on WMD issues who authorized the trip." Rove also told Cooper that, "there's still plenty to implicate iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro[m] Niger". (Newsweek) Rove will later say he only discussed Plame's identity after Novak revealed it. 
Evening of 11 July, 2003: CIA Director George Tenet takes responsibity for the misleading language concerning uranium in Bush's State of the Union Address, citing a failure of the agency's vetting process. 

12 July 2003: Ari Fleischer tries to cover Bush's State of the Union mistake by confusing four-year-old intelligence with the more recent, non-credible intelligence. 

12 July, 2003: Walter Pincus says an administration official told him, somewhat off topic, that Joseph Joe Wilson's wife was a CIA analyst working on weapons of mass destruction. 

13 July 2003: Matthew Cooper's "A Question of Trust" is published at Time Magazine's website (publication date for the magazine July 21). The article traces the controversy surrounding President Bush's 2003 State of the Union speech and the African uranium controversy. Anonymous sources of information are attributed to "two senior Administration officials," "another official," and "an intelligence official." Named sources include Vice President Dick Cheney's assistant Scooter Libby, Joseph Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame's superior Alan Foley, and former State Department proliferation expert Greg Thielmann. 

14 July 2003: "Mission to Niger" by Robert Novak: "Joe Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Joe Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger.... The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Joe Wilson and asked his wife to contact him." The story is published on Ari Fleisher's last day as White House Press Secretary. 

16 July 2003: "A White House Smear" is published at the website of Nation magazine. Author David Corn opines Novak's informants revealed the role of Joe Wilson's wife in order to sully Joe Wilson's name for sake of revenge. Corn suspects "two administration officials" means "Bush officials." Corn's article is the first published to argue a nefarious White House role. 

17 July 2003: "A War on Joe Wilson" is published at Time Magazine's web site as a web exclusive. Matthew Cooper is listed as lead journalist. The article indicates that some of the sources for "A Question of Trust" had informed at least one Time journalist about Valerie Plame's status. "And some government officials have noted to TIME in interviews, (as well as to syndicated columnist Robert Novak) that Joe Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, is a CIA official who monitors the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. These officials have suggested that she was involved in her husband's being dispatched Niger to investigate reports that Saddam Hussein's government had sought to purchase large quantities of uranium ore, sometimes referred to as yellow cake, which is used to build nuclear devices." 

18 July 2003: British weapons of mass destruction expert David Kelly dies under suspicious circumstances. 

21 July 2003: Newsday article "Columnist Names CIA Iraq Operative" by Timothy M. Phelps and Knut Royce attributes intelligence information independently leaked to them about Plame as coming from "intelligence officials" and a "senior intelligence official." . Both have been subpoenaed in the Plame investigation. 
July 22, 2003 Newsday quotes Novak, on Plame's name: "I didn't dig it out. It was given to me. They thought it was significant. They gave me the name, and I used it." 

30 July 2003: When pressed, Scott McClellan told reporters: “I’m saying no one was certainly given any authority to do anything of that nature, and I’ve seen no evidence to suggest there’s any truth to it.” ... To date, Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) have called for investigations and any number of other senators have told reporters that some sort of inquiry is probably in order. 

August 2003

3 August 2003: Joe Wilson appears on CNN Late Night with Wolf Blitzer offering his opinion on the existence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction programs: 
"BLITZER: I think he's being very cautious now, given some of the missteps in the past. But do you have confidence in (weapons inspector)David Kay, that they know what they're doing? 
JOSEPH Joe Wilson, FORMER U.S. ACTING AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: Oh, absolutely, and I've had confidence in -- that we would find weapons of mass destruction, weapons of mass destruction programs from the very beginning of the run-up to the war in Iraq. 
687, the initial U.N. resolution dealing with weapons of mass destruction, demanded compliance, and it had as its objective disarmament. We had not yet achieved disarmament, so it was perfectly appropriate to continue to try and gather together the international consensus to disarm Saddam and his programs. 
I think we'll find chemical weapons. I think we'll find biological precursors that may or may not have been weaponized. And I think we will find a continuing interest of -- on nuclear weapons. The question really is whether it met the threshold test of imminent threat to our own national security or even the test of grave and gathering danger." 
Joe Wilson's comments are similar to others connected to the intelligence community but who opposed the Iraq war - Iraqi weapons of mass destruction did indeed exist. But they don't believe a murderous dictator, with terrrost ties; possessing WMD; denying the WMD's existance, is a threat to the United States.