THE BIGGER PICTURE. A general note before delving into the actual Libby trial, which got underway in earnest this morning:
The conduct that Scooter Libby is accused of lying about is far from the most consequential of Libby's many damaging acts in the context of the Iraq war. Libby is not on trial for serving up the "Chinese menu" of almost entirely false and misleading claims about the Iraqi threat for Colin Powell to use at his disgraceful February 2003 presentation at the United Nations; for hammering CIA people like Jami Miscik to sign off on the public use of bogus claims about the connections between Iraq and al-Qaeda; or for his almost comic efforts with Vice President Cheney to micromanage the search for WMD in Iraq, sending David Kay's team the purported coordinates of the WMD -- in Lebanon. Libby is charged with obstructing an investigation by lying repeatedly under oath about how he learned about Valerie Plame's CIA affiliation and how he disclosed that information to journalists. And he is entirely innocent of those charges unless Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is able to convince a jury otherwise beyond a reasonable doubt. Criminal investigations like Fitzgerald's are only one, and often the least preferable, form of oversight of government conduct. For a while, however, it was all we had. That is changed now, especially thanks to the Democrats' control of Congress. Yet there may still be little appetite for looking back at the events of 2002-3, and in that regard the prosecution of Libby will offer some useful insight into what remains a crisis for us: the public justification of the war on dishonest grounds and the fallout from it. Obviously, it is worth examining that crisis again so that we may avoid the same mistakes in the future -- and in this regard, it is particularly appropriate that opening statements in a trial whose context is set by an account of Bush's infamous sixteen words in his 2003 State of the Union are happening on the same day as this year's State of the Union, with the Bush administration again apparently pushing for a confrontation, this time with Iran. There is no sign that any senior policymakers in the Bush administration have learned anything from the Iraq experience, so someone has to learn from it. But it is also worthwhile revisiting the crisis that unfolded in 2002-3 for another reason: simply to get as accurate an account of what happened as possible. Truths remain powerful weapons in politics, and we are sure to find some important ones in the testimony of witnesses at Libby's trial and in the documentary evidence that each side will be making available to the public at the end of each day that it is introduced.
--Jeff Lomonaco
