Irving Libby

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.

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."

"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.

"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."

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.

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.

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...."

Libby has been identified as a...longtime lawyer for Marc Rich.

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

• Council on Foreign Relations - Member
• Project for the New American Century - Member, Signatory of Statement of Principles, August 1999 Letter on Taiwan's Defense
• Center for Strategic and International Studies - Member
• Hudson Institute - Former Senior Adviser
• American Bar Association - Former Member, American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National Security
• Rand Corporation - Former Member, Advisory Board of the Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies
• Northrop Grumman - Former Adviser

Indictments

• Indictment: I. Lewis Libby, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Office of Special Counsel, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, October 28, 2005.
• Press Release, Office of Special Counsel, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, October 28, 2005.
• "Excerpts From the Libby Indictment. Twenty-two pages boiled down to 1,200 words," Village Voice, October 28, 2005.
• President's Remarks on the Resignation of Scooter Libby, The South Lawn, White House, October 28, 2005, 3:51 PM (EDT).

Websites

• CIA Leak/Valerie Plame Outing Scandal Resource Center on the PERRspectives website.

Profiles

• I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, RightWeb Profile.
• I. Lewis Libby, New Hampshire Gazette "Chickenhawk Headquarters".
• "Who's Who in the White House," updated 16 February, 2004.
• John Lyman, "Who is Scooter Libby? The Guy Behind the Guy Behind the Guy," Center for American Progress, July 8, 2004.
• Database of 21 Bush regime officials who were involved in the leak coverup was posted 12 August, 2005, by think tank Think Progress.
• "Profile: Lewis 'Scooter' Libby," BBC, 28 October, 2005.

External articles

2006

• "Lewis Libby Joins Hudson Institute", Media Release, 6 January, 2006.
• Greg Mitchell, "'National Journal': Libby Authorized to Leak by Cheney, Others," Editor & Publisher, 9 February, 2006.
• "Libby: 'Superiors' Approved Leak," Associated Press/CBS News, 9 February, 2006.
• Toni Locy, "Libby: White House 'Superiors' OK'd Leaks," CommonDreams.org/Associated Press (ABC News), 10 February, 2006.
• Neil A. Lewis, "Libby Testifies Leak Was Ordered, Counsel Says," New York Times, February 10, 2006.
• Asha Puttaiah, "Libby to grand jury: 'superiors' authorized leaks of classified information," Jurist, 10 February, 2006.
• "Leaks," Atrios, 9 February, 2006: Comparison of Bush on leaks "then" and "now".
• Justin Raimondo, "Masters of Deception. And now for the real news…," Antiwar.com, 15 February, 2006.
• Toni Locy, "Judge Won't Dismiss Case Against Libby," The Washington Post, 27 April, 2006.
• James Vinci, "Libby lawyer to argue Bush's role in leak," Reuters, 5 May, 2006.
• Walter Pincus, "Libby Prosecutor Focuses on CIA Officer's Status. Filings Say Ex-Cheney Aide Knew That Plame Was Classified, Giving Him Reason to Lie to Grand Jury," Washington Post, 22 May, 2006.
• James Gordon Meek, "2 in CIA to testify Libby lied on leak," CommonDreams.org/New York Daily News, 23 May, 2006. re Robert Grenier and Craig Schmall
• R. Jeffrey Smith, "Libby Told Grand Jury Cheney Spoke of Plame. Vice President May Be Called as Witness," Washington Post, 25 May, 2006.
• Murray Waas, "Bush Directed Cheney To Counter War Critic," National Journal, 3 July, 2006.

2007

• Paul Courson, "Libby sentenced to 30 months in prison,", CNN, 5 June, 2007.
• "The Architects of War: Where Are They Now?" Think Progress, July 2007.

Notes