THE CIA LEAK CASE - A Presidential Aide Indicted

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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/30/INGJPFG2O71.DTL

A key to understanding the events leading up to Friday's indictment of Lewis "Scooter" Libby is recalling the stark differences in how the Bush administration prepared for the two foreign wars it has waged -- in Afghanistan and Iraq -- and how and why it used a small, secretive body to help prepare for the second war.

The tightly organized group, called the White House Iraq Group, coordinated some of the war planning, but its more important purpose was marketing the Iraq invasion to a wary Congress and American public -- recognition of the fact that, unlike Afghanistan, this was a war of choice and that the evidence supporting an attack on Saddam Hussein was far from clear.

The group consisted of close presidential aides who specialized not just in intelligence or military matters, such as then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and her deputy, Stephen Hadley, but also in spin and politics -- in particular, Bush's chief political adviser, Karl Rove; his key communications consultant, Karen Hughes; and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Libby, who was involved in a wide range of policy and political issues for the administration.

The group was formed by Andrew Card Jr., Bush's chief of staff, who stated in an interview with the New York Times in August 2002 that the White House would apply commercial marketing principles in its efforts to persuade Congress and the public of the menace Iraq presented.

"From a marketing point of view," Card said in the article, "you don't introduce new products in August."