Irving Libby

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I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Jr., Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to Vice President Dick Cheney since 2001, resigned 28 October, 2005, after being indicted on five counts, of which he was later convicted on four. He was sentenced to thirty months in prison on 5 June, 2007. Libby is a long-standing member of the group of hardliners and neoconservatives who pushed for the Iraq War. [1]

Plame Controversy

The indictments resulted from a grand jury investigation which began on 31 October, 2003, into the leaking of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame’s name. Department of Justice Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald and FBI "investigators have been trying to determine whether Libby or any other administration officials knowingly revealed" Plame's identity or "about their involvement to investigators. Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, is a diplomat and an opponent of the Iraq war who challenged U.S. President George W. Bush’s assertion that Saddam Hussein was in possession of nuclear materials." [2] [3]

"Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information"

Libby "testified to a federal grand jury that he had been 'authorized' by Cheney and other White House 'superiors' in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of pre-war intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records," reported the National Journal. [4]

"Beyond what was stated in the court paper, say people with firsthand knowledge of the matter," Waas wrote, "Libby also indicated what he will offer as a broad defense during his upcoming criminal trial: that Vice President Cheney and other senior Bush administration officials had earlier encouraged and authorized him to share classified information with journalists to build public support for going to war. Later, after the war began in 2003, Cheney authorized Libby to release additional classified information, including details of the National Intelligence Estimate, to defend the administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case for war." [5]

Profiles

Irving Lewis "Scooter" Libby was born 22 August, 1950 in Connecticut. He attended a private prep school in Massachusetts, Phillips Academy. In 1972, Libby received a BA from Yale University, graduating magna cum laude, and in 1975 received a JD from Columbia University. [6] [7]

Before joining the White House staff, Scooter Libby was managing partner of the Washington office of the international law firm of Dechert, Price & Rhoads. He also served as Legal Advisor to the House of Representatives' Select Committee on U.S. National Security and Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China, commonly known as the Cox Committee. [8]

After graduating from law school, Libby "went to work as a lawyer in Philadelphia, then got a job offer from his old Yale political science professor, Paul D. Wolfowitz, now the deputy defense secretary. In 1981, Mr. Libby went to work for Mr. Wolfowitz at the State Department, then left in 1985 to go into private practice. Freed from his State Department duties, Mr. Libby was able to research 1903 Japan, which was the slice of time between the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War that he had decided should be the backdrop for his novel. By 1989 he was working again for Mr. Wolfowitz, this time at the Pentagon, and [his novel 'The Apprentice'] was set aside with few regrets.

"'Shortly after I got there, we had the breakup of the Soviet Union and war with Iraq,' Mr. Libby said. 'So it turned out to be the perfect job.'

"Mr. Libby left the Pentagon when Bill Clinton became president in 1993...." [9]

Libby has been identified as a...longtime lawyer for Marc Rich. [10] [11] [12]

Libby was a key promoter of Laurie Mylroie, and according to Bob Woodward, played a key role in steering Dick Cheney towards the conclusion that Iraq had a links to Al Qaeda.

Work Chronology

  • 2001-2005 - Assistant to the President, chief of staff to the Vice President and national security affairs adviser to the Vice President
  • 2000 - Adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney in the 2000 presidential campaign
  • 1995-2001 - Dechert, Price & Rhoads, Attorney
  • 1992-1995 - U.S. Department of Defense, deputy under secretary-policy
  • 1989-1992 - U.S. Department of Defense, deputy undersecretary-strategy and resources
  • 1985-1989 - Dickstein, Shapiro & Morin, attorney
  • 1982-1985 - US Department of State, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, special projects director
  • 1981-1982 - US Department of State, policy planning staff, member

Affiliations

Indictments

Websites

Profiles

External articles

2006

2007

Notes

  1. 'Profile: I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby', Right Web, accessed 1 April, 2009.
  2. 'Top Cheney aide Libby indicted, quits post', MSNBC website, 28 October, 2005.
  3. 'United States of America v. I. Lewis Libby', United States Department of Justice website, 31 October, 2003.
  4. Murray Waas, 'Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information ', National Journal, 9 February, 2006.
  5. Murray Waas, 'Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information ', National Journal, 9 February, 2006.
  6. 'Scooter Libby - The White House', web.archive.org/George W. Bush: Resources for the President's Team website, accessed 1 April, 2009.
  7. 'Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, a quiet force', MSNBC website, 28 October, 2005.
  8. 'Scooter Libby - The White House', web.archive.org/George W. Bush: Resources for the President's Team website, accessed 1 April, 2009.
  9. Elisabeth Bumiller, 'White House Letter; Novelist in Chief of Staff's Clothing', The New York Times, 18 February, 2002.
  10. Justin Raimondo, 'Cheney Chief-of-Staff Named as Spy-gate Leaker', antiwar.com, 2 October, 2003.
  11. 'GOP lawyer: Facts "misconstrued" in Rich case', CNN, 2 March, 2001.
  12. 'Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby, a quiet force', MSNBC website, 28 October, 2005.