Sep 28, 2019

U.S. diplomat who publicly challenged Bush on Iraq dies at 69

Wilson holds a press conference in 2006. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Joseph C. Wilson, the U.S. diplomat who publicly debunked intelligence used to support President Bush's 2003 invasion of Iraq, died in his home on Friday at 69, the New York Times reports. His ex-wife, former CIA agent Valerie Plame, said the cause of death was organ failure.

His impact: Wilson, who was the last American diplomat to negotiate face-to-face with Saddam Hussein in 1990, "forced the White House to concede, grudgingly," that the Bush administration "built the case for the invasion of Iraq on a faulty intelligence report," per the Times. His actions "changed both the narrative and the politics of the war."

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