Libby indicted in CIA leak case

US vice presidential adviser Lewis Libby was today indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, making a false statement and perjury in the CIA leak case.

Karl Rove, President George Bush’s closest adviser, escaped indictment today but remained under investigation, his legal status a looming political problem for the White House.

The indictments stem from a two-year investigation by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald into whether Rove, Libby or any other administration officials knowingly revealed the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame or lied about their involvement to investigators.

The five-count indictment accuses Libby of lying about how and when he learned about CIA official Valerie Plane’s identity in 2003 and then told reporters about it. The information was classified.

Any trial would shine a spotlight on the secret deliberations of Bush and his team as they built the case for war against Iraq.

Bush ordered US troops to war in March 2003, saying Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction programme posed a grave and immediate threat to the United States.

No such weapons were found.

The US military death toll in Iraq climbed past 2,000 this week.

Moments before the indictments were released, Bush stepped off Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House after a brief trip to Norfolk, Virginia.

As the documents were released, Cheney was giving a speech in Georgia.

Libby, 55, is considered Cheney’s closest ally, a chief architect of the war with Iraq.

A trial would give the public a rare glimpse into Cheney’s influential role in the West Wing and his behind-the-scenes lobbying for war.

Though Libby has worked in relative obscurity, he is one of the administration’s influential advisers because of his proximity to Cheney, one of the most powerful vice presidents in US history.