Libby trial witness leaves White House reeling (Mark Tran)

  Mark Tran --Guardian Unlimited

  Jan. 26, 2007 -- President Bush's administration was today preparing for damaging repercussions from testimony by one of its own officials in the perjury trial of Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, the former chief of staff to the U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney.

  Cathie Martin, Mr Cheney's former spokeswoman, yesterday told a court that she clearly remembered telling Mr Libby the identity of a CIA operative, Valerie Plame, whose husband, Joseph Wilson, had attacked the Bush administration's case for war against Iraq.

  Mr Libby faces five felony counts of lying to a grand jury and FBI agents for claiming that he learned of Valerie Plame's identity from reporters. Her name was first disclosed in a column by the conservative columnist Robert Novak in July, 2003, just days after her husband had written a comment in The New York Times accusing the Bush administration of distorting intelligence to bolster the case for invading Iraq.

  Mr Wilson had been sent to Africa to investigate reports that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium from Niger for his nuclear weapons programme. He reported back to the state department and the CIA that the reports were untrue, yet the claim surfaced in George Bush's state of the union speech in January, 2003.

more

READ MORE: Guardian Unlimited