Special Prosecutore Patrick Fitzgerald has announced that Cheney chief of staff Scooter Libby has been indicted on five charges on obstruction of justice, perjury, and making false statements. (Here are PDF's of the Libby indictment text and the Fitzgerald press release text.) The false statements occurred during interviews with federal agents in 2003. The perjury charges center on two different appearances by Libby before the grand jury. In response, Libby has tendered his resignation. At this time, the status of the Karl Rove investigation has not clarified.

While the legal story is still unfolding, it is critical to keep the significance of the CIA leak case front and center. The two key narratives here about the Bush White House:

1. Protecting Fictional Iraq War Rationales. Ambassador Joseph Wilson's July 6, 2003 threatened to undermine the White House's claims regarding Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. With the 9/11 Commission's subsequent destruction of the Al Qaeda and 9/11 linkages to Iraq, the White House is left only with the myth of the Bush Doctrine. With the Senate Select Committee Intelligence dragging its feet on its investigation regarding manipulation of pre-war intelligence, the American people still are waiting for answers.
2. The Bush Politics of Payback. The war against Joe Wilson is not the exception to the rule, but the rule itself. The outing of Valier Plame and the attack on Wilson are just the latest in five years of savage and baseless attacks on the likes of Richard Clarke, General Eric Shinseki, Paul O'Neill, Jim Jeffords, and Richard Foster.

For more backgrond, see:

• "The PlameGate Scandal Resource Center."


"The Iraq WMD and Intelligence Center."

• "Bush, Plame and the Politics of Payback."

—Perrspective 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) |