CIA Leak Case Blame Game
BLITZER: It's high-profile trial involving high-profile government officials and featuring explosive allegations of lies and betrayal, some of which are being lodged against officials in the White House. Today in the CIA leak trial, the government continued to call witnesses. But will anything they say be as highly charged as what Lewis "Scooter" Libby's lawyers alleged yesterday? CNN's Brian Todd is over at the courthouse with more -- Brian.</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, today's testimony dealt mostly with the credibility of Scooter Libby's memory defense, but many are still talking about the opening statements of this trial and how a bombshell from the defense adds even more political intrigue to this case.</s>TODD (voice over): He's turned on a White House that places a fierce premium on loyalty and set the tone for a trial that one observer says will portray the Bush administration as engaging in a scorched earth campaign against critics. In his opening statement, attorney Ted Wells said his client, Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was to be sacrificed. Karl Rove was to be protected. Experts says this is not Libby's legal defense as he fights charges of lying to investigators in the CIA leak case. This, they believe, is designed to play to the sympathies of a jury drawn from a city where Democrats heavily outnumber Republicans.</s>JONATHAN TURLEY, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: So what the defense is doing is to say, yes, we know you don't like the administration. And you know what? They're just as bad as you thought they were, and this guy is the guy they want to take the fall for them.</s>TODD: Ted Wells said Libby even went to Cheney saying he was concerned about being scapegoated. Wells quoted a note from Cheney to Libby saying he wouldn't be sacrificed. A former prosecutor warns this could undermine Libby's defense that he accidentally misled investigators because of a bad memory.</s>MICHAEL ZELDIN, FORMER SPECIAL PROSECUTOR: The notion of a scapegoat in the midst of a conspiracy and the notion of "I forgot because this wasn't important," seemed in contradiction to me.</s>TODD: Karl Rove, the president's high-powered political adviser, has not been charged in this case, but he could appear as a witness. Sources close to Rove have acknowledged that he was one of the sources for the disclosure of a CIA operative's covert identity. Now, we contacted the White House, Rove's personal representative, and the vice president's office. None would comment on Ted Wells' statements about Libby being sacrificed to protect Rove -- Wolf. Brian, who else testified today?</s>TODD: Robert Grenier (ph), a former CIA officer, and Mark Grossman, a former State Department official. These were prosecution witnesses that the prosecution is trying to set up to shoot holes in Libby's memory defense. They are -- they testified essentially to when they met with Libby about this case, what they said to him, and when. They started to being cross-examined by the defense, and we should hear more from them soon.</s>BLITZER: We'll stay on top of this trial every step of the way. Brian, thank you for that There's another development in the criminal trial of Lewis "Scooter" Libby as well. Last week we told you a select number of bloggers have been granted access to the courthouse to give the public real-time coverage of the trial. Now those reports are about to get a major boost online. Let's get some details from our Internet reporter, Jacki Schechner -- Jacki.</s>JACKI SCHECHNER, CNN INTERNET REPORTER: Wolf, that's right. The Media Bloggers Association is now partnered with The Associated Press, which is going to make bloggers' content available to some 750 news sites across the United States. Here's how it's going to look to you. You go to a news site like "The Des Moines Register," for example. You'll go to the main Libby article on the trial. You'll scroll down to the right-hand side of the page and you'll se a box like this that says "blog." If you click on that, it's going to take you to a separate pop-up window page, and that will be a compilation of the posts from the bloggers that are blogging from inside the courthouse. Now, there is a statement on this site that says that the opinions that are contained herein are those of the writers of these blogs, and not of The Associated Press. But the AP says they wanted to do this, one, just to see how it worked, and also because they think the readers garner something from seeing how bloggers cover the trial. For example, James Joyner from the conservative "Outside the Beltway," was inside the courthouse today and he says this is really good for readers. They'll get real-time coverage and they'll get alternative voices. He's one of 15 bloggers that are going to rotate in and out of two seats that were obtained by the Media Bloggers Association. There's also three other independent liberal bloggers who are going to be inside that courthouse blogging as well. Go to cnn.com/situationroomblog. We have compiled all of the links that you need pertaining to the trial there -- Wolf</s>BLITZER: Thanks very much, Jacki, for that. We'll stay on top of this trial. And we're just getting this in. The Senate Armed Services Committee has now confirmed the nomination of General David Petraeus to be the new U.S. military commander in Iraq. That nomination now goes to the full Senate floor, widely expected to be overwhelmingly approved by the full Senate by the end of this week. Now Lieutenant General, soon to be David -- full general David Petraeus, the new commander of multinational forces in Iraq. Coming up in our 7:00 p.m. Eastern hour, more of my exclusive interview with the vice president, Dick Cheney. I'll ask him if he thinks Osama bin Laden is still alive and why hasn't the U.S. been able to find him more than five years after 9/11. And still ahead this hour, former president Jimmy Carter now saying he's hurt by some very personal criticism over his latest book. We're going to have details. New developments in this controversy that you will want to see. Stay with us. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.