CIA Didn't Like Being Made the Scapegoat...

Libby case shows bad blood between White House, CIA "Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff is learning one Washington lesson the hard way: Don't do battle with people who run covert operations for a living". The bad blood between the White House and CIA has been known for some time. But the 22-page indictment Friday of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby displays — in black and white — just how nasty relations had become between senior White House officials and the nation's spy chiefs. When Libby complained to the CIA in June 2003 that agency officials were making comments to reporters "critical of the vice president's office," he specifically mentioned former Ambassador Joseph Wilson's trip to Niger to investigate whether Iraq was trying to obtain nuclear materials. He also spoke of Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame. Later, at the CIA's request, the Justice Department launched an investigation into how Plame's identity and employment with the agency were leaked to the media. The 22-month review involved some of the White House's most senior players and resulted in Libby's indictment and resignation Friday. A grand jury charged him with obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in relation to the investigation. Other instances of bad blood between the White House and CIA were more clandestine. The indictment said Libby in 2003 "disparaged" the CIA for its "selective leaking" of information during a discussion with New York Times reporter Judith Miller. In a later exchange, the indictment said, Libby asked Miller to identify him as a "former Hill staffer" rather than a "senior administration official" when he criticized the CIA's reports about Wilson's trip and told Miller he believed that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA.