Article: Cheney/Libby et al were focused on destroying Wilson.

These brutes in the Oval Office Cabal made up the reasons for the Iraq War. It was obvious to all who cared to pay attention and the facts detailed in the article of February 9, 2007 "Official's Key Report On Iraq Is Faulted" at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/08/AR2007020802387_
pf.html, which states "Intelligence provided by former undersecretary of defense Douglas J. Feith to buttress the White House case for invading Iraq included "reporting of dubious quality or reliability" that supported the political views of senior administration officials rather than the conclusions of the intelligence community, according to a report by the Pentagon's inspector general," can not be considered revelations as they are not new. Maybe the Phase 2 of pre-war Iraq Intelligence investigations will get a jump start from this though.

Since they phonied up the causes for the war, they had to silence dissent. That was what Libby was doing when he leaked Plame's name, scaring people from telling the populace that there was no reason for the war. How better could they do that than attacking a covert CIA agent. Sure it is a criminal offense, but W and Cheney didn't care and after a time out of the spotlight Libby will have a TV show on FOX as Ollie North has as the price for taking the bullet for his superiors.

Libby's defense is just stupid. How could he have such a faulty memory that he could forget that Cheney told him in June 2003 that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA, and then remember that Russert told him this same information on 10 July?

By the way according to Russert that didn't happen, but facts and reality don't matter much to 43's team.

How does a person's memory work poorly just 1 month after it worked superbly?

What was Libby doing this summer-time of 2003? The article "The Libby trial: contortions of power" at http://www.smirkingchimp.com/node/5353/print states "Upon the publication of Nicholas Kristof's column in the New York Times on 6 May that described the Wilson mission but did not identify him, Cheney went into a fury. Libby was dispatched to unearth material about Wilson. He called Robert Grenier, chief of the CIA's counterterrorism unit, on 11 June and learned from him the identity of Valerie Plame, according to Grenier's testimony on 24 January in the Libby trial."

So Libby knows it on June 11th.

The article "Libby Trial: Scooter Speaks, Part II" at
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=163806 details how jurors spent Tuesday listening to audiotapes of Libby's two appearances in 2004 before the grand jury investigating the CIA leak. He's on tape saying to reporter Matt Cooper "And I said reporters are telling us that [former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's wife works at the CIA], I don't know if it's true. I was careful about that because among other things, I wanted to be clear I didn't know Mr. Wilson.
I don't know - I think I said, I don't know if he has a wife, but this is what we're hearing."

That little speech was "on July 12, 2003 (two days before Valerie Wilson was outed as a CIA officer in a Robert Novak column".

The sheer audacity of Libby who "By the time the jurors heard this part of the tape, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had presented as witnesses five past or present Bush administration officials and one journalist who each testified that he or she discussed Wilson's wife with Libby prior to Libby's phone call with Cooper. An additional witness--Vice President Dick Cheney's current chief of staff, David Addington--testified that Libby had asked him about the paperwork the CIA would keep if an officer had sent a spouse on a trip. And a Libby note from early June 2003, introduced as evidence by both the prosecution and the defense, indicates that Cheney told Libby, his chief of staff at the time, that Wilson's wife was employed at the CIA's Counterproliferation Division, a unit in the agency's clandestine operations directorate."

He gave up Cheney as "Before the grand jury, Libby conceded that sometime before June 12, 2003, Cheney told him that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA."

It is too reminiscent of Watergate, where the man who succeeded "Tricky Dick" had our reckless, feckless, heartless Dicky as his chief of staff. Cheney knows all about "I can't remember" and told Libby to try it on for size as "Before the grand jury, Libby repeatedly said he was "surprised" by the information he received from Russert. He said he felt he was learning it "anew" and was "taken aback." He was not unsure on this point: "I have a specific recollection I was surprised."

Libby is toast. Cheney should be also as "Libby acknowledged that after Wilson's op-ed came out, he discussed the Wilson controversy with Cheney, who was "upset" by the article.
But Libby claimed that he and Cheney (who had written a note about Wilson's wife on his copy of the op-ed) had not talked about Wilson's wife until weeks later.
In other words, right after the op-ed was published, Cheney and Libby had talked about various aspects of the Wilson case except Wilson's wife."

Cheney has stooge 43 primed to utter his "16 words" in his state of the union speech. He's plotting with everyone he can think of to discredit Wilson, and he doesn't mention his wife to his faithful toady Libby? Cheney accused Wilson of getting the prestigious job of tracking down the truth in the Iraq-Niger mess because of his wife's influence, and the president of vice, the v.p., frequently made this insinuation.

How can outing a covert CIA agent be considered gossip? The article "Libby Trial: Russert Ruins the Cover Story" at
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=164130 explains how Libby is trying to make us believe that he learned about her "anew" when Russert passed him this gossip during a phone call. It's an essential part of Libby's tale.
When the FBI and a grand jury were looking for administration officials who had leaked information on Wilson to reporters--and Libby was a potential target--Libby told the Bureau and the grand jury that he had not disclosed any information gathered from official sources; he had only shared with a few reporters a rumor he had picked up from Russert. And you can't prosecute a guy for spreading gossip. Again and again, during his grand jury testimony, Libby pointed to Russert: he told me, and, boy, was I surprised."

Libby was focused on destroying Wilson. Reckless, feckless, Dickless knows all about "Tricky Dick" and how the fear of being put on his hate list terrified people during his reign of terror. Cheney, with his stooge W, have perfected terrifying opponents due to a small extent, better technology, but mostly due to their sheer lack of decency.