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`Scooter' denies guilt in CIA leak trial

US Vice President Dick Cheney and other top officials of US President George W. Bush's administration could be called to testify if Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's top aide, goes to trial on a criminal indictment involving how the US went to war in Iraq.

Libby's "not guilty" plea to the five-count felony indictment, which he gave at his arraignment on Thursday, seemed sure to prolong debate about the White House's prewar use of intelligence, probably in a protracted court battle.

"With respect, your honor, I plead not guilty," Libby told US District Judge Reggie Walton.

Libby is charged with obstruction of justice, two counts of lying to the FBI and two counts of committing perjury before a federal grand jury.

Libby's indictment has enabled Democrats to bring back questions about the Bush administration's primary justification for invading Iraq, the incorrect assertion that ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and the ability to use them.

The indictment also comes with Bush's popularity rating at its lowest level since he took office after a week in which his administration bungled a Supreme Court nomination, the US death toll in Iraq passed 2,000 and a cloud remained over his chief strategist, Karl Rove, in the leak case. Rove remains under investigation.

Libby waived his right to a speedy trial, and it will take his legal team three months to get security clearances to examine classified information that the prosecution must produce to the defense.

Libby was charged with lying to investigators and the grand jury about leaking to reporters the CIA status of a covert agency officer, Valerie Plame. Plame was revealed after her husband, former US ambassador Joseph Wilson, accused the administration of twisting intelligence in the run-up to the war to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.

Wilson made his accusation after a CIA-sponsored trip to Africa in which he said he found no evidence to support the allegation that Iraq had an agreement to acquire uranium from Niger.
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