Libby Indicted, Others Facing Sterner Charges?

So much for "bringing dignity back to the White House".

Irve Lewis Libby Jr. has resigned after being indicted on five counts: (2) perjury, (2) false statement, (1) obstruction of justice. This is more than just a case of Libby "throwing sand" in Fitzgerald's face. Text of indictment here.

Raw Story says that Rove's ass is still roasting on a skewer, Fitzy is empanelling a new grand jury, and now he is going after the whole damn gang:

The lawyers said that in the past month Fitzgerald has obtained explosive information in the case that has enabled him to pursue broader charges such as conspiracy, and civil rights violations against targets like Rove. Specifically, the lawyers said Fitzgerald is focusing on phony intelligence documents that led to the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson’s identity: the documents that claimed Iraq was attempting to purchase yellow-cake uranium from Niger.

A court filing posted on Fitzgerald’s website last week was the first such confirmation that the prosecutor has in fact decided to pursue the broader claims that intelligence the Bush administration used to build support for the Iraq war was flawed and, as a result, the reason many officials inside and outside of the White House went out of their way to out Plame, whose husband was a vocal critic of the Iraq war who was sent on a mission to Niger to investigate allegations that Iraq had attempted to buy Niger from the African country...

NATO sources told United Press International Monday that Fitzgerald's team of investigators has sought and obtained documentation on the forgeries from the Italian government.

Those forged documnets from Italy are going to be the key to this, linking the conspirators to Michael Ledeen and the neoconservatives.

And by the way, isn't it clever how Fitzgerald picked a quiet news day to release his indictment? I think he knows he needs as much public support as he can get for the bigger chanrges later, so he is building some PR momentum. All those leaks about "charges tomorrow... or the next day... or the next..." may have been intentionally designed to bluff the Bush team. So we got the Miers nomination, the Saddam beofre the cameras (finally) story, the Miers withdrawal... today all Bush has got is a lame speech about more of the same, in which he was heckled for promoting terrorism.