Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby goes on trial tomorrow over the administration's response to one critic who questioned assertions US President George W. Bush made four years ago to justify waging war against Iraq.
Once the right-hand man to Vice President Dick Cheney, Libby faces charges of perjury and obstruction of an investigation into the leak of a CIA officer's identity to reporters.
Libby joins a long list of presidents' men to face charges in the federal courthouse in the capital -- Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman in Watergate, Admiral John Poindexter and Marine Colonel Oliver North in Iran-Contra.
In those scandals, trials spawned more trials and long reports from independent counsels. Libby, however, probably will be the only official charged in the CIA leak investigation. His trial is unlikely to fix blame for the scandal and there will be no narrative report.
The trial, nevertheless, should give the public glimpses of how Bush administration insiders responded to one high-level critic -- former ambassador Joseph Wilson -- who claimed the president and his closest advisers distorted intelligence and lies to push the nation into war with Iraq.
Wilson was the leading critic of Bush's claim that Iraq tried to buy uranium in Africa. Wilson, who was sent to Niger to check the uranium story, told reporters the intelligence did not check out and the administration knew that long before Bush included the assertion in his State of the Union speech in January 2003.
The criticism led White House officials, including Cheney, to begin questioning how Wilson ended up making the trip and whether Wilson's wife, a CIA officer, was involved. In June 2003, the backroom chatter made its way into the press.
Wilson says the information about his wife -- Valerie Plame -- was leaked on purpose as retaliation and was part of an effort to silence other critics in the intelligence world.
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald spent three years investigating that claim but filed no charges based on the leak itself. He says his work is done except for trying Libby, who resigned after being indicted in October 2005.
Fitzgerald has made clear in court that he wants to keep the larger, political backstory out of the trial and focus narrowly on whether Libby lied to his investigators and obstructed the case.
That leaves Libby in the unexpected position of wanting to talk about the whole story of the leak and who else was involved. Libby's lawyers say Plame's identity was not disclosed because of a grand conspiracy, but rather because of political infighting among the CIA, the White House and the State Department over intelligence failures on Iraq.
The more jurors hear about that, defense lawyers say, the more likely they are to believe Libby had no reason to lie and the better his chances are for acquittal.
Libby plans to testify about the other things he had on his mind when Plame was outed and when the FBI questioned him. He says terrorist threats, Middle East tensions, the war in Iraq and emerging nuclear programs in Iran, North Korea and Pakistan overshadowed the Plame issue and clouded his memory about how and when he learned Plame's identity.
The case will make history as the first time a sitting vice president has testified at a criminal trial, historians say. Libby's lawyers say they plan to call Cheney, who can bolster claims that Libby had more pressing things on his mind than Plame.
Fitzgerald's star witnesses include reporters from some of nation's leading media organizations. Former New York Times reporter Judith Miller spent 85 days in jail trying to avoid telling Fitzgerald about her conversations with Libby. She is expected to testify about three interviews in which he referred to Plame.
Tim Russert, the Washington bureau chief for NBC News, is a crucial witness for Fitzgerald. Libby says it was Russert who first told him that Plame worked for the CIA. Russert says the conversation was quite different and did not even mention Plame.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese