Indicted White House aide won't argue Bush ordered leak of agent's name

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/eng/international/ticker/detail/Aide_won_t_argue_Bush_ordered_leak_of_agent_s_name.html?siteSect=143&sid=6629519&cKey=1144946424000

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An indicted former White House aide does not contend that President George W. Bush and U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney ordered him to leak the name of a CIA officer whose husband criticised the administration's Iraq policies, the aide's lawyers said.

A court filing by Lewis "Scooter" Libby's defence team argues that CIA officer Valerie Plame was not foremost on the minds of Bush administration officials as they sought to rebut charges by her husband, Joseph Wilson, that they manipulated intelligence to make a case for invading Iraq.

"Mr. Libby plans to demonstrate that the indictment is wrong when it suggests that he and other government officials viewed Ms. Wilson's role in sending her husband to Africa as important," said the filing late Wednesday night.

Wilson investigated for the CIA an administration claim that Iraq had tried to buy uranium, a potential nuclear-weapons ingredient, in Africa, and he later wrote that the charges could not be substantiated.

[asjr]

1. Damn! That hole just keeps getting deeper.