Justice delivered to Scooter

WASHINGTON - Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted today of obstruction, perjury and lying to the FBI in an investigation into the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity to reporters.

Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was acquitted on just one of five charges after a trial that focused renewed attention on the Bush administration's claims of evidence about weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Said Patrick Fitzgerald: "Any lie under oath is serious. We cannot tolerate perjury. The truth is what drives our judicial system. If people don't come forward and tell truth, we have no hope of making judicial system work. And for all of you who thought perjury and obstruction of justice charges were so important back in 1998 and think I should have given Mr. Libby a break, I say you're a bunch of unprincipled hypocrites. Especially since the incident in 1998 involved lying about a consensual affair, while Mr. Libby's involved a serious breach in national security. Now, that's hypocritical."