Chickens are Coming Home to Roost

White House adviser Karl Rove told the grand jury in the CIA leak case that I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, may have told him that CIA operative Valerie Plame worked for the intelligence agency before her identity was revealed, a source familiar with Rove’s account said yesterday. Washingtonpost.com, October 20, 2005

About two-year long grand jury probe into the matter that outed the CIA secret operative Valerie Plame’s identity to the press is winding down. Its tenure will expire on October 28, 2005. If the Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald found sufficient evidence that crime was committed in willfully releasing Valerie Plame’s name to the press, some heads might roll soon (may be even before this article gets published). The latest hot news about the case is Karl Rove’s assertion that I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby may have told him that CIA operative Valerie Plame worked for the intelligence agency before her identity became public knowledge. Rove is the Deputy Chief of Staff of President Bush and his top adviser, and Mr. Libby is the Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff. This disclosure “seemed to further undermine the White House’s contention early in the case that neither man was in any way involved in unmasking Plame,” (washingtonpost.com, October 20, 2005).

The information that has become public knowledge is not however sufficient to determine if anybody committed a crime in leaking information to the media about Plame’s identity. In addition to Rove and Libby, several other officials have been questioned by the grand jury. According to washingtonpost.com, “John Hannah, an aide to Cheney and one of two dozen people questioned in the CIA leak case, has told friends in recent months he is worried he may be implicated by the investigation, according to two U.S. officials.”

All kinds of rumors are flying around. Yesterday, I read on the Internet (blogs?) that the Vice President Dick Cheney might step down and in such an event, Secretary of State Condaleeza Rice was the likeliest person to become the vice president. A name was also bounced around to fill the slot of Karl Rove if he were indicted.

This whole issue emerged from the administration’s efforts to build a strong case for war against Iraq. The fundamental reason for invading Iraq was the allegation that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (wmds), which Iraq denied all along. The United Nations weapon inspectors had failed to uncover any such weapons in Iraq in spite of their concerted and patient efforts. The White House did not buy the UN’s search results and defended its stance by assertions, which subsequently were proved wrong. The (in)famous 16 words that were included in the president’s state of the union address particularized administration’s case in no uncertain terms. These words were as follows: “The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” More specifically, from Niger Republic in Africa.

To ascertain if Iraq-Niger connection really existed for uranium, Joe Wilson, who had served both President George H. Bush and President Bill Clinton, in high positions, went to Niger to see from close quarters if there was any truth in such assertions. He found out that there was no deal for uranium between Niger and Iraq and on his return, he published his report in the New York Times on July 6, 2003 under the caption “What I Didn’t Find in Africa.” In order to punish him, his wife’s, Valerie Plame’s, identity as a secret operative was released to the press. It is not publicly known yet who did it?

Judith Miller, a NYT reporter on wmds, refused to release her source of information to the grand jury for which she was sent to jail on a charge of contempt of court. She was in jail for 85 days when she agreed to release her source because she was allowed by her source to do so. She said, it was Scooter Libby. In an article published in the NYT on October 16, 2005 (The Miller Case: A Notebook, a Cause, a Jail Cell and a Deal), Don Van Natta et al wrote, “On June 23, 2003, Ms. Miller visited Mr. Libby at the Old Executive Office Building in Washington. Mr. Libby was the vice president’s top aide and had played an important role in shaping the argument for going to war in Iraq. He was ‘a good-faith source who was usually straight with me,’ Ms. Miller said in an interview. Her assignment was to write an article about the failure to find unconventional weapons in Iraq. She said Mr. Libby wanted to talk about a diplomat’s fact-finding trip in 2002 to the African nation of Niger to determine whether Iraq sought uranium there. The diplomat was Mr. Wilson, and his wife worked for the CIA.” It was also rumored that Valerie Plame pulled strings at the CIA to send her husband to Niger although nobody has proved such an accusation.

After Ms. Miller had served 85 days in the jail cell and started realizing that she might not get any reprieve and her jail sentence might be prolonged if she did not cooperate with the grand jury, she obtained a waiver from Mr. Libby to release his name. According to Don Van Natta et al, “In a folksy conversational two-page letter dated Sept. 15 (2005), Mr. Libby assured Ms. Miller that he had wanted her to testify about their conversation all along. ‘I believed a year ago, as now, that testimony by all will benefit all,’ he wrote. And he noted that ‘the public report of every other reporter’s testimony makes clear that they did not discuss Ms. Plame’s name or identity with me.’” Many believe that this was an attempt to coach Ms. Miller how she should testify in front of the grand jury. This may be tantamount to obstruction of justice. When Ms. Miller testified, Mr. Fitzgerald asked her about the letter. “She said she responded that it could be perceived as an effort by Mr. Libby ‘to suggest that I, too, would say that we had not discussed Ms. Plame’s identity.’”

Although the Special Prosecutor may not indict anybody but the abrupt change of course that the hearing has taken in view of Karl Rove’s testimony, it appears that some heads will roll. Scooter Libby and Karl Rove are perceived to be very vulnerable.