LIbby’s Memory At Issue

WASHINGTON (AP) – On grand jury audiotapes played at his trial on Tuesday, former White House aide I. Lewis Libby said he learned about a CIA officer from Vice President Dick Cheney, forgot it, then learned it again from NBC News reporter Tim Russert a month later.The complicated history of Mr. Libby’s recollections is at the heart of his perjury and obstruction trial in exposing the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA employee. She is married to war critic and former Ambassador Joseph Wilson.Libby’s 2004 grand jury testimony – a total of eight hours – conflicts with testimony at his trial by a former White House press secretary, a recent vice presidential spokeswoman, a former CIA official, a former State Department undersecretary and reporters from The New York Times and Time magazine.All testified that Mr. Libby discussed Ms. Plame with them. Mr. Libby told the grand jury he did not remember Ms. Plame coming up in any of those conversations. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has told jurors for weeks that Mr. Libby lied. The audiotapes will allow jurors to decide for themselves.Meanwhile, the long-anticipated testimony by Mr. Cheney as well as Mr. Libby himself may not materialize. Mr. Libby’s lawyers – who two months ago declared they were “calling the vice president” to testify – indicated this week only that Mr. Cheney was “potentially” a witness and that Mr. Libby might decide against taking the witness stand.By not testifying during his trial, Mr. Libby would avoid cross-examination from Mr. Fitzgerald.In audio tapes from Mr. Libby’s grand jury testimony, Mr. Fitzgerald can be heard walking Mr. Libby through the Bush administration’s response to Mr. Wilson’s suggestion in 2003 that the government had twisted prewar intelligence about Iraq.Mr. Libby told the grand jury he was “disturbed … upset’s a fair word I guess” by Mr. Wilson’s July 6, 2003 attack on the administration in an op-ed piece in The New York Times.As for Mr. Cheney, “I’m sure he was upset,” Mr. Libby added.To rebut Mr. Wilson’s claims, Mr. Libby said Mr. Cheney told him to leak portions of an intelligence report saying Iraq had “vigorously” tried to acquire uranium from the African nation of Niger. Mr. Libby said Mr. Cheney assured him that President Bush had authorized the release of the information, which had been classified.“The vice president instructed me to go talk to Judith Miller to lay things out for her,” Mr. Libby said.Mr. Cheney had already told Mr. Libby at that point that Mr. Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA, a fact that Mr. Fitzgerald says Mr. Libby relayed to Ms. Miller. Mr. Libby says he forgot all about Ms. Plame until days later, when Mr. Russert told him about it.“I do not believe I discussed Mr. Wilson’s – Ambassador Wilson’s – wife in this conversation,” Mr.Libby testified. “This was a couple of days before I talked to Tim Russert and I recall being surprised by what Tim Russert told me.”Mr. Russert is expected to testify Wednesday and will be a key witness because his recollection of that conversation is at odds with Mr. Libby’s. Mr. Libby said he called Mr. Russert to complain about NBC colleague Chris Matthews and, at the end of the conversation, Mr. Russert brought up Ms. Plame.“Did you know that Ambassador Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA?” Mr. Libby recalled Mr. Russert asking.“No, I don’t know that,” Mr. Libby said he replied.“Yes, all the reporters know it,” Mr. Russert responded, according to Mr. Libby’s testimony.Mr. Russert said Ms. Plame never came up in the conversation. Mr. Fitzgerald believes that Mr. Libby concocted the Mr. Russert conversation because Mr. Libby feared he may have improperly passed along secret government information. Mr. Libby said he only repeated the information he heard from Mr. Russert.Mr. Fitzgerald, who sounded casual in his early questioning, sounded incredulous at times later in the interview.“You have a special recollection of remembering that you had forgotten that you knew Ambassador Wilson’s wife worked at the CIA?” Mr. Fitzgerald asked.Mr. Libby said he did not remember discussing Ms. Plame with White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, Cheney spokeswoman Cathie Martin, CIA official Robert Grenier or State Department Undersecretary Marc Grossman.“I tend to get between 100 and 200 pages of material a day that I’m supposed to read in a day,” Mr. Libby said at the end of his first grand jury appearance. “So a lot of information comes through to me and I can’t possibly recall all the stuff I think is important, let alone other stuff that I don’t think is as important.”Mr. Libby came back for a second appearance and said he remembered discussing Joseph Wilson’s connection to the CIA with Mr. Grossman.“He’s one of yours,” Mr. Libby recalled telling Mr. Grossman.“Not one of ours, one of theirs,” Mr. Grossman said, pointing toward the CIA seat in a conference room, Mr. Libby testified.“It’s a sad state of affairs when the CIA has to get their own ambassador to go to a country to ask questions about what our own ambassador could be asking about,” Mr. Libby recalled saying.Mr. Libby said it was a joke and that Mr. Wilson’s wife never came up.He said he still could not recall the conversations others said they had with him about Ms. Plame.___Associated Press writer Pete Yost contributed to this report.

LIbby’s Memory At Issue

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