Reply #17: Grrr.

[Mechatanketra]

"It was a serious accusation," Libby said. "It was a very serious attack."
...
Libby said that Cheney "thought we should get some of these facts out to the press. He then undertook to get permission from the president to talk about this" to reporters.

Vice President Cheney and other senior White House officials regarded a former ambassador's accusations that President Bush misled the nation in going to war in Iraq as an unparalleled political assault and, early in the summer of 2003, held daily discussions about how to debunk them, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby told a federal grand jury.

This is the phrasing that has been infuriating me since the whole freaking mess began, and what I wish someone would take a hammer to these bastards' knuckles for saying. It's a matter of public record now that Wilson was right — the Niger story was bogus.

You can't "debunk" a factual statement. Attempting to do so anyway does not qualify for usage of the verb "debunk"; the proper word is defraud.