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Politics

Ex-aide to Bush disputes Libby

By TIMES WIRES
Published January 30, 2007

WASHINGTON - Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer testified Monday that he first heard a prominent war critic's wife worked at the CIA from vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby - three days earlier than Libby told investigators he first learned about Valerie Plame.

Fleischer, testifying in Libby's trial under a grant of immunity, contradicted the account of Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff.

Fleischer said Libby told him at lunch on July 7, 2003, that Plame worked for the CIA.

"This is hush-hush," Fleischer recalled Libby as saying in effect. "This is on the Q.T. Not many people know about this."

Libby has said he first learned of a CIA agent's identity on July 10, 2003, from NBC reporter Tim Russert.

Four other government witnesses also have said they discussed Plame with Libby before July 10, and the discrepancy between those accounts and what Libby told the FBI and a grand jury is a big component of the perjury and obstruction of justice charges against Libby.

Libby now says his memory failed when he spoke to Russert. Russert said Monday that he did not tell Libby about Plame. "I was not and never have been the recipient of the leak," he said.

Fleischer proved to be a calm and unflappable witness. He often turned to speak directly to the jurors, sometimes using hand gestures.

Fleischer said his lunch with Libby was their first and had been scheduled by Libby in anticipation of Fleischer's imminent departure to start his own company. After talk of career plans and the Miami Dolphins, the subject shifted to the controversy raging over criticism by Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, of President Bush's State of the Union address in January 2003.

Fleischer testified that Libby said, "She works at the CIA; she works in the counterproliferation division."

"I thought it was kind of odd," Fleischer said, describing his reaction. "My sense is that Mr. Libby was telling me this was kind of newsy." He did not think the information was classified, however, because whenever he was told or given classified information "people would always say, 'This is classified. You cannot use it.' "

Fleischer said he again heard about Plame four days later from White House communications director Dan Bartlett. Bartlett was reading a document and began "venting" to no one in particular his displeasure that reporters kept writing that Cheney had sent Wilson to Niger.

"His wife sent him," Fleischer recalled Bartlett saying. "She works at the CIA."

Bush had said Iraq was trying to buy uranium in Africa for nuclear weapons, and that had become part of the justification for war with Iraq. Wilson said in print and on TV that he was sent to Niger to investigate the report and had debunked it in 2002.

[Last modified January 30, 2007, 00:44:15]