Bush administration targeted agent

In February 2002, the CIA sent former Ambassador Joseph Wilson to Africa to look into claims that Saddam Hussein had tried to get uranium there.

Wilson found that the reports were untrue, that documents were forged, etc., and reported his findings back to the government.

In January 2003, almost a year later, in his State of the Union message, President Bush said the British reported that Saddam had tried to get uranium from Africa.

In July 2003, Mr. Wilson, apparently increasingly troubled by the president's remarks, went on the record with his findings in The New York Times.

A week later, "two senior administration officers" were cited as sources by Robert Novak in his "outing" of Wilson's wife, the CIA's Valerie Plame, thereby ending her career; exposing an existing CIA operation; and putting agents who had worked with her in the past at risk.

Now, the vice president's chief of staff has been indicted for obstructing an investigation into the affair.

It appears to me that the administration tried to punish Wilson for knocking holes in their arguments for attacking Iraq, and now Mr. Libby has gotten caught in the cover-up.

James Hudson, Augusta