Note from David Corn's fine article on-line in The Nation, that any number of characters in the Cheney/Bush Administration leaked the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame to the news media, but not, it appears Irving "Scooter" Libby himself--that is, not until he claims he learned about it from the Press, in the person of Tim Russet. From the word go, however, one can be very confident that Libby was the prime, behind-the-scene orchestrator of the leak operation, having been given that assignment by Co-Consul Cheney.

Among the actual leakers were then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer and current White House hatchet-man, "Bush's Brian", Karl Rove. One gets the impression from Armitage's encounter with Bob Woodward, which Woodward taped, that divulging Plame's name as a CIA operative was no big deal. Ditto for Ari Fleisher. Rove has been reported to have said that Valerie Plame was "fair game" in the project to discredit her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson. By the way, why in the world hasn't Rove been fired or forced to resign?

Libby is a liar and a conniver, that's a given, but if he beats this rap, one reason may be because Fitzgerald did not indict Armitage, Fleischer and "Bush's Brain" as well, and did not name as unindicted co-conspirators, Co-Consuls Cheney and his junior partner in crime, Co-Consul Bush. The fact that Fitzgerald did not bring charges against these others, who did leak or who gave orders to leak, may indicate to the Jury that Fitzgerald does not think leaking was such a big deal, after all. Maybe Fitzgerald does believe that; maybe lying to a Federal Grand Jury is a bigger deal.

On the other hand, maybe Fitzgerald is going step by step, from one water-tight compartment to the next. If Libby is convicted, Libby will face the slammer, and his lawyer will suggest that he turn state's evidence against both Cheney and Bush, to reduce the jail time. Don't forget that Libby's job description was chief of staff to Cheney but he was also a counselor to the President. Libby wore two hats and knows where all the bodies are buried. As a consequence, he will most likely be pardoned by Bush, before he can sing.

And what about CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, what was her job description? According to Corn, "Valerie Wilson was operations chief for the Joint Task Force on Iraq of the Counter proliferation Division in the agency's clandestine operations directorate." Isn't it a bit ironic and revealing that the White House railroaded America into a war against Iraq based upon scare tactics and its alleged concern over "weapons of mass destruction" when concurrently it was fully prepared to destroy the career of a key public servant who was in charge of finding out about such weapons? Doesn't that make the White House's obsession with WMD suspect and phony, if not outright bogus?  Of course it does.

Cheney and Bush and their minions are outing their own CIA agent in an attempt to achieve short-term political gain. Period. They are lowlifes. We go to war over WMD which do not exist, and in the aftermath of that war the White House destroys a key agent who is responsible for preventing the spread of WMD. Well, I don't think Cheney, Bush and the "neocon" con men working for them gave a hoot about Saddam's WMD in the first place, because they knew, or strongly suspected, that these WMD did not exist, had been destroyed years ago. It was all a smoke screen to hide the hidden agenda. It worked.