Mission in Vienna the BP-documents on Niger yellowcake were obvious fakes. Among errors reportedly identified in the documents is a reference to a Nigerien constitution in 1965. 20 March: Iraq invasion begins. May 2003 6 May: After an off-the-record meeting with Wilson, Nicholas Kristof reports in a New York Times column that "a former U.S. ambassador to Africa" had been sent to Niger the year before and had reported that the Iraq uranium allegations were false. June 2003 10 June: State Department staff prepare an internal memo naming Plame as Wilson's wife. The paragraph identifying Mrs. Wilson is marked "(S-NF)", signifying its information is classified "Secret, Noforn." 12 June: During a telephone call, Cheney told Libby that Wilson's wife worked in Counter Proliferation 12 June: Marc Grossman, the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, meets with Scooter Libby and tells him that Plame works for the CIA and may have helped organize her husband's Niger trip. July 2003 The "Plame affair" becomes such during this month. The month opens with Wilson's op-ed describing his trip to Niger and suggesting the Iraqi nuclear threat had been exaggerated, followed within days by multiple Bush administration leaks or confirmations to reporters and the publishing of Wilson's wife's name, revealing that Valerie Plame worked for the C.I.A. despite the fact that she was then undercover. By mid-month the first stories emerge suggesting the Bush administration had leaked this information as retribution against Wilson. 6 July: Wilson publishes an op-ed in The New York Times describing his trip to Niger and saying: "I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat." 7 July: Secretary of State Colin Powell boards Air Force One for a trip to Africa with President Bush and other members of the administration. Powell carries with him a copy of the 10 June memo his State Department prepared, naming Plame as Wilson's wife and signifying the information is classified "Secret, Noforn." 7 July: Over lunch, Libby tells White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer that Wilson's wife works on nonproliferation issues at the CIA and was behind Wilson's trip to Niger. pre-8 July: Journalist Robert Novak has a conversation with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage. In that conversation he is told for the first time that Wilson's wife works for the C.I.A., though Armitage didn't