US:The conviction of a former White House aide is a blow both to his former boss, Dick Cheney, and to George Bush, writes Denis Stauntonin Washington
Yesterday's conviction of former Bush White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby on four counts of perjury, lying to investigators and obstructing justice has reopened the debate about how the Bush administration made the case for war in Iraq.
The verdict is a serious blow to Mr Libby's former boss, vice-president Dick Cheney, who is already an increasingly isolated figure within the administration following last year's departure of former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Mr Libby's trial was, as prosecutors told the jury, about lying. It was about the lies Mr Libby told during an investigation into the 2003 leaking of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA agent. But it was also about claims that the administration deliberately lied about Saddam Hussein's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons capability to justify the invasion of Iraq.
Although neither Mr Libby nor Mr Cheney testified, the trial focused on the relationship between the vice-president and his former chief of staff, and on Mr Cheney's determination to counter criticism of the administration by Ms Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson. Mr Wilson had angered the administration by writing an opinion piece in the New York Timescasting doubt on President George Bush's claim that Iraq had tried to import uranium from Niger. Mr Wilson had led a CIA-sponsored mission to Niger to investigate the claim and concluded it was probably a hoax.
Within days of Mr Wilson's article, conservative columnist Robert Novak revealed that Ms Plame was a CIA analyst, implying a nepotistic role in the choice of Mr Wilson to lead the Niger mission.
Nobody has been charged with the offence of leaking Ms Plame's identity but special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald soon determined that Mr Libby lied to investigators about his role in the leak.
Mr Libby initially denied that he knew about Ms Plame's job or that she was Mr Wilson's wife, but later conceded that at one point he had heard it from veteran NBC journalist Tim Russert, and then passed along the information as gossip. He claimed that he was so preoccupied with important issues of national security that he forgot the details of how he heard about Ms Plame.
In fact, it was Mr Cheney who told his chief of staff that Ms Plame worked for the CIA and prosecutors claimed the vice-president encouraged Mr Libby to brief reporters against Mr Wilson.
During the investigation Mr Libby said the vice-president instructed him to release classified material from a national intelligence estimate to a sympathetic reporter. When Mr Libby hesitated, Mr Cheney told him he had been authorised by Mr Bush to leak the material, which was designed to undermine Mr Wilson's claims.
Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean yesterday called on the president and Mr Cheney to come clean about how intelligence was used to make the case for war. "Many unanswered questions remain about the other key Bush advisers who participated in the administration's efforts to mislead the American people and smear its critics who have yet to be held accountable. Ultimately, the buck stops with President Bush," he said.
Mr Bush promised in September 2003 to take tough action against anyone in his administration found to have leaked classified information.
"If there was a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of," he said.
Mr Libby's lawyers claimed he had been made a scapegoat in an attempt to cover up the role of other White House aides, including Karl Rove, in leaking Ms Plame's identity. If his appeal against yesterday's conviction fails, however, Mr Libby's only hope of avoiding a spell in prison will be that Mr Bush will grant him a pardon, a move the president has so far refused to rule out.
Mr Libby's conviction is unlikely to prompt Mr Cheney to resign but it is the latest in a succession of blows to the vice-president's authority in recent months. Last month's agreement with North Korea, which will see the US lifting sanctions against Pyongyang in return for a halt to its nuclear programme, was approved without reference to Mr Cheney.
Mr Bush's decision to allow US officials to participate in a conference on Iraq with Iran and Syria also represents a departure from the hawkish foreign policy stance favoured by the vice-president.
For Mr Bush, who is struggling to address a scandal about poor conditions for wounded soldiers returning from Iraq, Mr Libby's conviction could not come at a worse time. As the president continues to argue for an escalation of troop levels in Iraq, the verdict reinforces the view of most Americans that more than 3,000 of their soldiers have died in a war that was not necessary.