1.27.2007
Cheney's Key Role in Leak Case Detailed (LATimes.com)
A former aide testifies in Libby's trial that the vice president directed the effort to discredit a CIA agent's husband.
By Richard B. Schmitt, Times Staff Writer
January 26, 2007
WASHINGTON — In the first such account from Vice President Dick Cheney's inner circle, a former aide testified Thursday that Cheney personally directed the effort to discredit an administration critic by having calls made to reporters in 2003.
Cheney dictated detailed "talking points" for his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and others on how they could impugn the critic's credibility, said Catherine J. Martin, who was the vice president's top press aide at the time.
Libby is on trial on charges of obstructing an investigation into how the name of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame, became public. The government says her identity emerged in conversations Libby had with several reporters. It is illegal to knowingly divulge the name of a CIA employee.
Plame's name came up in the conversations because she is the wife of former envoy Joseph C. Wilson IV, the critic whom the administration was trying to attack after he publicly raised questions about the intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
Martin, who is now deputy White House director of communications for policy and planning, testified as a prosecution witness on the third day of Libby's trial. She became the third witness to testify that they had told Libby of Plame's identity well before Libby spoke with the reporters.
That contradicts Libby's statement that he learned of Plame's identity from one of the reporters, Tim Russert of NBC News. Libby is charged with lying to federal agents looking into the leak of Plame's name.
(More ... Los Angeles Times > National News)
By Richard B. Schmitt, Times Staff Writer
January 26, 2007
WASHINGTON — In the first such account from Vice President Dick Cheney's inner circle, a former aide testified Thursday that Cheney personally directed the effort to discredit an administration critic by having calls made to reporters in 2003.
Cheney dictated detailed "talking points" for his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and others on how they could impugn the critic's credibility, said Catherine J. Martin, who was the vice president's top press aide at the time.
Libby is on trial on charges of obstructing an investigation into how the name of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame, became public. The government says her identity emerged in conversations Libby had with several reporters. It is illegal to knowingly divulge the name of a CIA employee.
Plame's name came up in the conversations because she is the wife of former envoy Joseph C. Wilson IV, the critic whom the administration was trying to attack after he publicly raised questions about the intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq.
Martin, who is now deputy White House director of communications for policy and planning, testified as a prosecution witness on the third day of Libby's trial. She became the third witness to testify that they had told Libby of Plame's identity well before Libby spoke with the reporters.
That contradicts Libby's statement that he learned of Plame's identity from one of the reporters, Tim Russert of NBC News. Libby is charged with lying to federal agents looking into the leak of Plame's name.
(More ... Los Angeles Times > National News)
Labels: Cheney, CIA, LATimes, Plame
¶ 19:35
