The only question I need an answer for is, "Why was anyone in the White House talking about Joe Wilson's wife for any reason?"

Sylvia Plath at 4:57

I couldn't agree with you more wholeheartedly! If they could just answer that one simple question coherently and rationally...

Once again apparently Libby's strategy is to make the case about Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, not about whether and/or why he lied to the FBI and the Grand Jury and tried to cover up.

The reason for the whole thing was to beat down any possible whistleblowers within the intel community.

Just like the Mafia, they don't just go after you, they threaten your family. Cheney knew it could unravel because he spun it to begin with. The only way to cover up the whole faked intel was to intimidate those on the inside that might give him away. Threatening their family is a pretty effective way of getting across the message.

John in Los Angeles

The Sylvia, I think you will know the answer to your question when you first know the answer to the questions to who selected and sent Joe Wilson on this trip and what was their agenda?

Frank,
While it would be interesting to know... does that in some way justify the release of a covert agent's name?

While it may be argued that she never really had a reason for being covert, who is to say? Someone wishing to discredit her, or the people that assigned her the covert cover?

It reminds me of the movies where the government finds an agent no longer convenient and tosses them to the wolves.

In actuality, doesn't every covert agent have the right to expect that his cover will be maintained regardless of political expediency? Don't the people working with a covert agent have a need to believe that they are safe? Otherwise, how can we ask people to risk their lives by giving us information if it can be traced back to them when the agent's cover is blown?

Was there someone with knowledge of her complete history within the agency and all of her meetings during this time? Could any of these meetings be traced back to find more valuable assets? Was this considered before it was determined that her cover wasn't necessary and that it should be revealed?

Were there other means to discredit Mr. Wilson's argument that didn't involve his wife?

While I would love answers for these questions, I will just have to be satisfied with finding out whether or not Mr. Libby perjured himself while trying to prevent the most basic of our American institutions... the checks and balances between the branches of our government.

Frank,

Perhaps the ultimate agenda was the (successfully accomplished) destruction of our Iranian WMD intelligence network.

Since the intelligence community did not support the administration in the runup to the Iraqui war. it is not likely that they would later be offering justification for an attack on Iran.

It is a sad moment in the History of the US when we have become so used to the manipulation of evidence and self-serving / crony-enriching behavior of the Vice President that no one even asks why his notes on the NY Times article didn't say something like, "Look into this!! Did we rush into war while ignoring important evidence?" Let's set up a meeting with Joe Wilson to find out more."

There is something running through all these comments that remimds me of the JFK assassination conspiracy brouhaha. The people posting here, unless they work in the Special Prosecutor's office, really don't know anymore than the rest of us. They are full of ripe speculations and theories which will blow away like chaff in the wind when the facts are revealed. They desparately want the equivalent of a stain on a dress from the Gap or Nixon's Oval Office tapes. In short, their minds are already made up and I have no use for them.

Valerie Plame was about as covert as the publice information director at the Smithsonian Institute. This is a good example of the friction that comes from the executive branch and and the bureaucracy not agreeing on the direction the government should be going. Right or wrong, the Bush government is the elected and legal leader of the government, not Valerie Plame, not Joe Wilson. Who by the way have profitted handsomely from being "outed". This is typical insider politics that has become the staple of Wash. DC.

Oh yes, I see. Unless there's a stain on a dress. You know, taking a nation to war on false pretenses isn't a crime. Only sex is a crime.

There's no question in my mind that destroying the Iranian intelligence network was the point of this, because that was the result.

Either that, or they destroyed it through incompetence. Take your pick.

Isn't it clear that the Bush Administration is not only a danger to the world, but a danger to all freedom loving Americans?
I find it difficult to believe anything that comes from the White House. I'm just so tired of being lied, too.

I'm amazed at the contrast between Ken Starr and Patrick Fitzgerald. Leaks emerged from the Starr investigation with great frequency, and Fitzgerald's is tight lipped and disciplined.

I would really like it if Fitzgerald was appointed Attorney General in Al Gore's Administration.

Subway Serenade, like many people you are looking at only the superficial aspects of the case. Fitz is far from being "his own man"; he is a Bush appointee. Sometimes being tight lipped and disciplined is not so great -- it indicates a lack of humanity. Anyone who took on this job would be in a hot seat.

People are not so "hooked" on following this mess because of insider's look, but because they really want to see the Straussians SANDBAGGED, the sooner the better. There's been enough killing in Iraq to last -- and going into Iran is just upping the ante that the world will be a poorer place to live if there is expansion of war. We need to be applying human energy to building a better world, NOT coming up with rationales for oil/gas global dominance. WMD or nuclear enrichment or even building nuclear bombs has nothing to do with it; those are used a pretext for military action, not its cause.

Perhaps Charlie Gibson can put a happy face on the lack of news coming from the Libby/Cheney/Neocon cabal of losers now rushing to their demise. That they have themselves taken down the bushbaby regime is of the most humorous ironies available anywhere. Just the fact that they(ABC) refuse to print some of my posts proves to me that ABC News is more than likely nothing but the "snooze". Charlie Gibson will be a perfect fit for your avoidance behavior that you have chosen for ABC to adopt. Did you know that Mr.Iger(sp?)...

Henry, I'm wondering why the CIA would ask the Justice Department to investigate the outing of a "public information director". Your claim that Ms. Plame was not covert at the time of her identification has long ago been blown out of the water. See if you can catch up. Whatreallymatters said it best ... what a sad moment ...

Rove can breathe easier only because he had to "rat" out a higher "rat". Does Cheney have an increased wiggle to his walk today? Who is indicted under something called "Sealed" vs. "Sealed" which supposedly has been entered thereunto the proper aegis in this case...

Rove can breath easier because he did nothing wrong and the prosecutor is a fair man unlike the "high-tech lynch mob" assembled here.

It was a "set up" three years of Republicans calling Patrick Fitzgerald a witch hunter, a partisan hack, a man with a vengence thing, all designed to make us think it was all just a vindictive "witch hunt" on poor Karl...it worked..he won some sympathy, from the brainwashed minions, the idiots with such weak personalities and no ability to think for themselves, they would have fallen in with Charles Manson's cult, easily..but remember this, Patrick Fitzgerald is a Republican