Synopses & Reviews
Washington scandals come and go, but the one surrounding the investigation into the leaking of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity now in its fourth year has had unprecedented staying power. In October 2005, when I. Lewis Libby was indicted on five felony counts of making false statements to the FBI, perjury, and obstruction of justice, his trial became the latest chapter in the saga.
Murray Waas, one of today's finest investigative journalists, has edited and assembled this instant book that covers the trial from start to finish. He combines the trial transcript, pivotal testimony from key witnesses, and his own original, incisive reporting and an over-arching introductory essay. The subject is certainly one with which Waas is intimately familiar: he's done groundbreaking work for the National Journal covering the Plame investigation, as well as the Bush Administration's use (and misuse) of pre-war intelligence. No one is better qualified, or has done more, to inform the public of these shrouded events than Waas.
Like the published reports from the 9/11 Commission and the Iraq Study Group, this definitive study is sure to become one of the most significant political documents of this Bush era.
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"Murray Waas is our Woodward now...publishing the biggest story in town." Jay Rosen, PressThink.Org
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"Slowly but surely...Murray Waas has been putting together a compelling narrative about how President Bush and his top aides contrived their bogus case for war in Iraq." Dan Froomkin, WashingtonPost.com
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"Murray Waas is pretty impressive...he just keeps whaling away with discrete fact after discrete fact until, finally, he sinks the sucker." Steve Lovelady, Columbia Journalism Review
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"[Waas] suggests a plausible motive for both Scooter Libby and Karl Rove to have misled the grand jury about Plame." Greg Sargent, The American Prospect
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"Murray Waas is getting his day in the sun....The freelance investigative reporter has racked up a series of scoops. He's been cited by New York Times columnists Frank Rich and Paul Krugman." Howard Kurtz, Media Notes, Washington Post columnist
About the Author
Murray Waas is a freelance investigative reporter noted for his coverage of the White House planning for the 2003 invasion of Iraq in The American Prospect and the National Journal. He has also written for The Nation, Boston Globe, and New York Times. He lives in Washington, DC.