Shame of naming
Updated on 24 October 2005
George Bush's closest aides face charges of perjury and obstruction in thge naming of a CIA operative.
Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is winding up a two-year investigation into the leaking of the name of a CIA officer - allegedly to punish her husband for criticising White House claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Bush's chief adviser Karl Rove and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff Lewis Libby could be indicted for their alleged role.
The prosecutor is interested in the conversations Rove and Libby had about CIA officer Valerie Plame two years ago.
Her identity was leaked to the media after her diplomat husband, Joe Wilson, challenged the administration's pre-war intelligence on Iraq.
Wilson has said the White House identified his wife to discredit him.
Fitzgerald is considering if Rove and Libby tried to hide their involvement from investigators.
The New York Times reporter Judith Miller spent three months in prison rather than reveal that Libby had told her Plame's name.
If charges are brought, it would be a major blow for an administration that's suffering in the opinion polls - and it would put a question mark over the tactics it used to undermine critics of its Iraq policy.
That's why some Republicans are saying that Fitzgerald is partisan and over-stepping his brief.
