from the Centre for American Progress …..

‘Three years ago, President Bush delivered the State of the Union containing the infamous 16 words that alleged Iraq was developing a nuclear program. During the following summer, the insurgency was picking up steam, the search for WMD had turned up nothing, whistleblowers like former Ambassador Joseph Wilson were beginning to question the administration's motives, and the White House was hitting back against its critics.

Today, the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, is revealing how the administration operated during those crucial months in mid-2003. Right-wing commentators like Fox News' Brit Hume claim the Libby trial is a "not-very-serious case."

Libby is accused of felony perjury, a serious crime. Moreover, testimony from administration officials and journalists is showing how in the early days of the Iraq war, the White House manipulated the media, attacked its opponents rather than explain why no WMD had been found, and lost sight of the most serious issue of the time -- securing Iraq.

The Libby trial has "pulled back the curtain on the White House's PR techniques and confirmed some of the darkest suspicions of the reporters upon whom they are used," wrote Dana Milbank of the Washington Post. "Relatively junior White House aides run roughshod over members of the president's Cabinet.

Bush aides charged with speaking to the public and the media are kept out of the loop on some of the most important issues. And bad news is dumped before the weekend for the sole purpose of burying it." Neither the White House nor the journalists called to testify have "fared well, with prosecutors accusing the administration of carrying out a smear campaign against Wilson, and defense attorneys scrutinizing everything from the sloppy note-taking practices to the murky ethical terrain of members of the media."

Former Cheney communications director Catherine Martin explained how the White House "coddles friendly writers" such as former New York Times reporter Judy Miller, and "freezes out others" such as New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof. Martin also described how in 2003, she and other "communicators" were "excluded from high-level discussions about how George J. Tenet, then the C.I.A. director, would publicly take responsibility" for the 16 words. (By keeping her in the dark, Libby and the White House kept the media in the dark.) Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer testified that in July 2003, "he was directed not to repeat his assurances that the information was correct," but instead "punted" -- a pretty way of saying "misled" -- when answering questions about the 16 words.

The jurors in the Libby trial have so far received a detailed "primer on reporting tradecraft, with a great deal of testimony devoted to the various degrees of anonymity reporters grant sources in order to coax information from them." Miller "was asked how common it was for government officials to refuse to have their comments attributed to them by name." "Very common, she said, 'particularly in this administration.'" Miller should know. In the months following the Iraq invasion, Miller quoted "senior administration officials" on multiple occasions who told her the WMD had been found in Iraq.

For example, in early May 2003, Miller wrote an article entitled "U.S. Aides Say Iraqi Truck Could be a Germ-War Lab" in which she reported: "Senior Bush administration officials in Washington said today that a joint British-American team of experts had concluded that a tractor-trailer truck found in northern Iraq several weeks ago could be a mobile biological weapons lab." It was later shown that at the time, intelligence officials "possessed powerful evidence" contradicting Miller's reporting. The New York Times editorial board had to apologize for Miller's faulty coverage. "We have found," the Times wrote, "instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been ... In some cases, the information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged." Future revelations showed Miller may have "crossed an ethical line and grown too close to her sources," especially Scooter Libby. Miller spent 85 days in jail before Libby released her for a second time with his strangely-worded release waiver reminding her that "out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning." "Come back to work -- and life," Libby wrote. "Until then, you will remain in my thoughts and prayers."

More details have emerged about the administration's decision to attack Joe Wilson personally rather than deal honestly with the 16 words. Wilson's column came at a bad time for the administration as pressure mounted for the administration to produce the WMD. Yesterday, the prosecution unsuccessfully tried to introduce as evidence a note quoting Cheney aide Mary Matalin. "Wilson is a snake," Libby quoted Matalin as saying. Matt Cooper, a former reporter for Time Magazine, testified that Karl Rove was the first to tell him that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. "A number of things were going to be coming out about Mr. Wilson that would cast him in a different light," Rove told Cooper. "I said 'who' and he said, 'like, his wife,'" Cooper testified. Fleischer's testimony showed Libby knew the status of Valerie Wilson was a secret. "This is hush-hush," Libby told him. "This is on the Q.T. Not many people know about this."

Testimony and evidence revealed this week shows how Vice President Cheney "personally orchestrated his office's 2003 efforts to rebut allegations that the administration used flawed intelligence to justify the war in Iraq." Mary Matalin advised that Bush "should wave his hand" and declassify intelligence "that backed up the White House case for war." Cheney told Catherine Martin "to alert the news media that a highly classified and recent National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) indicated no doubts about Iraq's efforts to buy uranium." Martin scribbled notes on what Cheney told her to tell the media. "As late as last October, the considered judgment of the intel community was that SH [Saddam Hussein] had indeed undertaken a vigorous effort to acquire uranium from Africa, according to NIE," Martin wrote. Intelligence analysts have since revealed that "the uranium claim was never a key finding of the NIE and that there were doubts about it" at the time.’