Backstory: How the CIA leak case began

WASHINGTON - The saga of the CIA/Leak probe has been largely shrouded for almost three years. Since I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's indictment in October of 2005, disclosures in court filings allege no wrongdoing by Vice President Dick Cheney. But, they place the vice president closer than has been known before to events at the heart of the case.

Libby's possible motive is only one of many unknowns which may be disclosed in the upcoming trial. But witnessing Libby, one of the most powerful figures in the White House testifying in his own defense, and Cheney, the most powerful vice president in recent history, defending his one-time chief of staff, will make this trial an historic event.

The following are some of the milestones leading up to Libby's indictment.

Niger/Yellowcake
On Feb. 12, 2002, Cheney received an expanded version of an unconfirmed Italian intelligence report which was shared with British intelligence, and then passed on to Washington. It said Iraq's then-ambassador to the Vatican had led a mission to Niger in 1999 and sealed a deal for the purchase of 500 tons of yellowcake uranium in July 2000.  Cheney's office asked for more information.

The CIA chose a former ambassador to Africa to undertake the mission.

Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, was sent by the CIA to the West African nation of Niger to investigate claims that Iraq was seeking yellowcake uranium for a weapons program.

Immediately upon his return, in early March 2002, Wilson briefed the CIA and State Department and reported that the documents in the Italian report were bogus. It is unclear if that information was passed on to the White House or if the administration chose to ignore the report discrediting sales of yellowcake uranium to Iraq and undercutting an element of the administration's belief that Iraq was readying weapons of mass destruction which could threaten the U.S.

But at the time, the Vice President's office did not know the name of the envoy sent on the mission.

The "16" Words
By summer 2002, the White House Iraq Group began to describe the "grave and gathering danger" of Iraq's allegedly "reconstituted" nuclear weapons program. That claim, along with repeated use of the "mushroom cloud" image by top officials beginning in September, became the emotional heart of the case against Iraq.

President Bush invoked the mushroom cloud in an Oct. 7, 2002, speech in Cincinnati. References to African uranium remained in his speech until its fifth draft, but a last-minute intervention by Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet excised them.

On January 28, 2003 President Bush delivered his State of the Union address, which included the infamous "sixteen words" asserting that, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

In May 2003, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof first wrote that an unnamed ambassador traveled to Niger to investigate uranium sales. The envoy, Kristof writes, reported to the CIA and State Department that the information was unequivocally wrong and that the documents had been forged.

Who is Wilson?
Libby then asked an under secretary of state for information concerning the trip. The under secretary told Libby that the ambassador was Joseph Wilson.

Libby and Cheney made separate inquiries to the CIA about Wilson's wife, and each confirmed independently that she worked there. It was Cheney, the indictment states, who supplied Libby the detail "that Wilson's wife worked... in the Counterproliferation Division".

Libby claims that he did not remember details of briefings where he and Cheney were separately told that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA The briefings he received were presented by CIA and State Department officials.

Prosecutors say, Libby learned about Plame's CIA employment in June 2003 from Cheney, Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman and at least one senior CIA official, according to court papers.

Libby says the crush of national security issues and classified briefings he was receiving at the time overshadowed what he now describes as "insignificant" details about Wilson and his wife, which he says he simply forgot.  This will form the essence of Libby's memory defense at trial when defense attorneys and Libby himself will detail how he was so preoccupied with terrorist threats, Iraq's new government and emerging nuclear programs in Iran, Pakistan and North Korea to remember details of his conversations about a CIA operative, Valerie Plame. 

But, according to prosecutors, handwritten notes by Libby's CIA briefer indicate that Libby referred to "Joe Wilson" and "Valerie Wilson" in a conversation on June 14.

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