Washington - The former top aide to US Vice President Dick
Cheney was found guilty Tuesday of perjury, obstruction and lying to
investigators about the leak of a CIA operative's identity during the
Bush administration's battle to justify the Iraq war.
I Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, could
face up to 25 years in prison if the verdict by an 11-member grand
jury in Washington stands, Cable News Network (CNN) reported.
However, any actual jail term would likely be shorter.
At issue was whether Libby, 56, lied to a grand jury and to FBI
investigators probing whether US administration officials
intentionally leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame to
retaliate for her husband's criticism of the Iraq war.
Libby, who denies wrongdoing, was convicted on four of five
counts. His lawyers said they would seek a new trial or, failing
that, appeal the US district court's verdict. No sentencing date was
immediately announced.
Cheney, in a written statement, said he was 'very disappointed'
with the verdict but would have no comment on the case's merits
because the proceedings were continuing.
US President George W Bush was saddened for Libby and his family,
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters. She insisted the
ruling did not cast a cloud over Cheney, a driving force behind the
2003 US invasion of Iraq.
Harry Reid, the Democratic Party leader in the US Senate, said the
case illustrated the administration's attempts to skew prewar
intelligence and urged Bush not to grant Libby a pardon.
Plame's husband, former US diplomat Joseph Wilson, alleges that
the White House intentionally blew his wife's CIA cover.
Her name appeared in print on July 14, 2003, shortly after Wilson
wrote a newspaper article discounting one of the US administration's
war arguments - that Saddam Hussein's Iraq sought to obtain
yellowcake uranium from the African country of Niger.
The jury reached a decision on the 10th day of deliberations after
a trial that included testimony from former Bush administration
officials and some of America's best-known journalists.
Neither Cheney nor Libby testified at the trial. But several
witnesses undermined Libby's argument that he heard about Plame's CIA
employment from journalists, not from inside the administration.
Juror Denis Collins said 'there was a tremendous amount of
sympathy for Mr Libby on the jury' because he appeared to be taking
the fall for Cheney, his former boss.
'The belief of the jury was that he was tasked by the vice
president to go and talk to reporters,' though jurors never discussed
'whether Cheney would have told him what exactly to say,' Collins
said outside the Washington courthouse.
Exposing the identity of a CIA official can be a crime. Libby was
not charged with leaking Plame's name to the media but with hampering
the probe into who did. He resigned in 2005 after being indicted.
'Our point was that Mr Libby did not tell the truth to the
system,' lead prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said after the verdict.
Last summer, Plame and Wilson filed a lawsuit against Cheney and
top Bush aide Karl Rove of conspiring to ruin the couple's careers.
Plame and Wilson were seeking unspecified compensation.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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