The Libby lawyers ask questions

"Defense attorneys are even more pointed in their proposed questions. Among those on their list:

• "Based on what you know at this time, do you believe that the Administration misled the American people to justify going to war?"

• Have you been following any of the recent political scandals involving Jack Abramoff, William Jefferson, Tom DeLay, Cynthia McKinney, or Mark Foley?

• Do you have particularly strong feelings about the war in Iraq?

• Based on what you know at this time, do you believe that the administration misled the American people to justify going to war?"

Looseheadprop of Firedoglake offers a primer on the trial.

Christy Hardin Smith talks about Valerie Plame and the destruction of her career, and the men behind the exposure:
"For the Bush Administration, the message and the reality that they have created for themselves is everything — outside criticism is ignored or squashed as needed. Over and over again. Critics are silenced by any means necessary, and the consequences be damned. That Valerie Plame Wilson's network of agents and assets working on Iraqi and Iranian WMD matters was collateral damage? Well, that's the price to pay for political vengeance, now isn't it?

This is who is running our nation. This petty, vengeful, nasty cabal of neocon-men headed by Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, David Addington, Karl Rove, the rest of the WHIG, and George Bush. Take a good, long, hard look at them square in the face of who they truly are through the lens of this single case — and then sit back and wait for the testimony to put an even more dismal picture into play.

This is about to be one helluva trial. But before we even get to it, shouldn't we all start asking all of the questions that we failed to ask in the run-up to Iraq before we get started on a war without end with Iran? Here, I'll start: is this a good idea for the long-term interests of the United States? If not, then why are we even thinking about it? "

Update: Murray Waas:

"On January 16, Libby will go on trial in the federal courthouse in Washington D.C. on five counts of lying to federal investigators, perjury, and obstruction of justice. He is accused of attempting to conceal his role, and possibly that of others, in leaking to the media that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA officer, and that she might have played a role in sending her husband on a CIA-sponsored mission to Niger in 2002 to determine whether Saddam Hussein had attempted to procure uranium from Niger to build a nuclear weapon.

In attempting to determine Libby's motives for allegedly lying to the FBI and a federal grand jury about his leaking of Plame's CIA identity to journalists, federal investigators theorized from the very earliest stages of the case that Libby may have been trying to hide Cheney's own role in encouraging Libby to discredit Wilson, according to attorneys involved in the case.

Cheney is scheduled to be a defense witness in the Libby trial. Regarding this, a spokesperson for the Vice President says: "We've cooperated fully in this matter and will continue to do so in fairness to the parties involved.""