JUNE 12, 2003

Traitorgate may be started several weeks (or months) before, but the June 12 marker will be significant in the coming court cases.

According to the blockbuster in Tuesday's New York Times, on that day in history:

The Washington Post published a front-page article reporting that the C.I.A. had sent a retired American diplomat to Niger in February 2002 to investigate claims that Iraq had been seeking to buy uranium there. The article did not name the diplomat, who turned out to be Mr. [Joe] Wilson, but it reported that his mission had not corroborated a claim about Iraq's pursuit of nuclear material that the White House had subsequently used in Mr. Bush's 2003 State of the Union address.

June 12, 2003, also happens to be the day when Dick Cheney spoke with Lewis "Scooter" Libby and told him where Joe Wilson's wife worked. Within a month, Valerie Plame's identity had been published by the undead columnist Bob Novakula.