Washington – The case of New York Times reporter Judith Miller focused the spotlight Friday on Irving Lewis “Scooter” Libby Jr., the longtime aide to Vice President Dick Cheney and leading advocate of the now-discredited claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Miller was freed Thursday night after 85 days in jail for civil contempt for refusing to tell a grand jury the identity of administration officials she had interviewed. She ended her silence and testified for more than four hours Friday before the grand jury.
The panel is investigating whether Libby, White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove or other administration officials leaked the identity of an undercover CIA officer in 2003 to discredit an administration critic.
Libby and Rove have testified before the panel considering charges for disclosing the identity of a government agent, for perjury or for obstruction of justice.
Libby, 55, who followed his Yale political science professor Paul Wolfowitz into the Ronald Reagan administration in 1981, helped found the Project for the New American Century in 1997, a group of neo-conservatives led by Cheney, Wolfowitz and Donald Rumsfeld that pressed for regime change in Iraq.
The organization’s leaders unsuccessfully urged President Bill Clinton to oust Saddam Hussein from power in the 1990s before the officials fulfilled that objective with the Bush administration.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has said that Miller’s testimony would be crucial for wrapping up his 21-month effort to identify the person who told columnist Robert Novak that Valerie Plame Wilson, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, was a CIA officer.
Novak made the revelation days after Joseph Wilson had accused the Bush administration of having “twisted” intelligence to “exaggerate the Iraqi threat” before the invasion of Iraq.
