Washington: Now in its third year, the CIA leak investigation took a decidedly unwelcome turn for the White House last week.
A court filing by prosecutors depicted President George W Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney as setting in motion leaks to the press that ended in the disclosure of the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame.
The court papers say that in the weeks before Plame's identity was revealed, Bush authorised Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, to leak intelligence from a classified document to rebut a war critic, Joe Wilson.
Wilson, Plame's husband, had accused the administration of twisting prewar intllgence to exaggerate the threat from Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
The investigation by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is far from over. Libby's trial on five counts of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI is not scheduled to get under way until January.
Some questions and answers about the investigation:
Question: Now that the story is out that Bush and Cheney put
Libby in play, are the president or the vice president expected to be called to testify at Libby's trial?
Answer: The prosecution and the defence have not signalled their intentions.
Question: What did the president and vice president direct Libby to leak?
Answer: A portion of a classified prewar document in which US intelligence agencies declared Iraq was "vigorously trying to procure'' uranium. Libby's leaks were the beginning of an emerging White House strategy: Blame the CIA for providing the White House with a faulty premise for going to war.
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