President Bush's sudden commutation of I. Lewis Libby's jail sentence is being considered by many as a step to keep him quiet about the planning that resulted in America going to war against Iraq. As Vice President Cheney's top assistant, Libby was among those who compiled the reasons for the war, most of which have been shown to be baseless.

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COMMENTARY:
As Secretary of Defense in the first Bush administration Dick Cheney wanted the U.S. to re-attack Iraq within months of forcing Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in 1991. He didn't get his wish. Deprived of high office after the Bush I defeat in 1992, he helped form the Project for the New American Century that immediately requested that Bill Clinton launch an attack on Baghdad. Again, he didn't get his way. Similar pleas issued by PNAC to Congress were also ignored.

Back into government as Bush II's Vice President in 2001, Cheney continued his campaign to have the U.S. go after Saddam. Former terrorism expert Richard Clarke and former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil both wrote books in which they claimed that plans to go after Saddam were being formed by Cheney, Libby, Rumsfeld, and others even before 9/11. After 9/11, Cheney directed maximum attention toward Iraq even though no Iraqi had participated in the attack.

In February 2002 as the cries for going after Saddam Hussein intensified, the CIA sent former ambassador Joseph Wilson to Niger to investigate claims that this obscure African nation had sent nuclear weaponry materials to Baghdad. Wilson soon reported that there was "nothing to the story." Nevertheless, President Bush stated in his January 2003 State of the Union speech that Iraq had sought "significant amounts of uranium from Africa." He did so even after being cautioned against making such a statement by intelligence experts. Two months later in March 2003, our forces invaded Iraq.

In July, Wilson authored an op-ed piece for the New York Times outlining his disagreement with Mr. Bush about Iraq's supposed attempt to acquire nuclear materials from Niger. Almost immediately, Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was outed in the media as a CIA operative specializing in matters involving weapons of mass destruction. Identifying such persons as CIA operatives is a crime because, among other reasons, it endangers them and all those who served with them. Wilson became outraged and has always believed that the treatment accorded his wife amounted to retaliation for his unwillingness to support the false claim about Niger sending uranium to Iraq.

The Justice Department then investigated the Plame outing and its work led to questioning many individuals including Libby, the vice president's chief of staff. After a lengthy investigation, Libby was indicted on five felony charges involving lying and obstruction of justice. A jury convicted him of four of those counts and the judge sentenced him to 30 months in prison and a $250,000 fine.

A three-judge federal appeals court then refused to alter either the decision or the sentence. The original judge was about to order Libby to prison even while additional appeals were being prepared for him when President Bush issued his commutation of the prison sentence. Libby will avoid jail but his conviction stands and so does the $250,000 fine.

Though he'll likely never be able to practice law again, Libby won't be put behind bars. He is obviously grateful to Mr. Bush. But the man who may have benefited even more from the sudden, surprising and widely criticized Bush action is Dick Cheney. The Boston Globe noted that the commutation of Libby's sentence "demonstrated the continuing influence of Cheney." The New York Times pointed out that the Libby trial had much to do with Bush-Cheney's "unpopular war and the administration's penchant for secrecy." Joseph Wilson added: "By his action, the president has guaranteed that Mr. Libby has no incentive to begin telling the truth." And leading Democrats chimed in with claims that the president's move amounted to issuing Libby a "get out of jail free card."

The president could have pardoned Libby. Instead, he took the lesser route of commuting the sentence. Had he not done at least that, Libby would have had 30 months in a jail cell to think about telling all that he knows about the largely false campaign that sold the war to the American people, and even keeps selling it.

History will eventually supply more of the details about what amounts to a gargantuan coverup. We can only hope history's report will come soon.