February 12, 2007: Former State Department Official Testifies for Defense in Libby Trial

Former State Department Intelligence Bureau (INR) chief Carl Ford testifies for the defense in the Lewis Libby perjury and obstruction trial. Ford’s INR was one of the first governmental agencies to warn that the claims of Iraqi WMDs were not backed by solid evidence (see June 2, 2003), and Ford is the official who sent a memo indirectly identifying Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA agent to then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage (see July 7, 2003). The defense does little with Ford besides confirming the details of the memo, which primarily concerned Plame Wilson’s husband Joseph Wilson’s trip to Niger (see June 10, 2003 and July 20, 2005). [Marcy Wheeler, 2/12/2007]