UK Independent: Bush at bay (Fitz, Miers, Iraq)

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article322552.ece

Bush at bay

Senior White House officials face indictment over CIA leak. Protests across US as military death toll in Iraq passes 2,000. Republicans may force retreat over Supreme Court nomination

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington

Published: 27 October 2005

The Bush administration and all Washington were on tenterhooks yesterday as Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor, wrapped up his inquiry into the CIA leak affair, amid suspense akin to the election of a pope.

With the administration under siege on several fronts, there is strong speculation that the investigation could lead to the indictment of top advisers to President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney, and possibly other senior officials as well.

All eyes were fastened on the District of Colombia federal courthouse on Pennsylvania Avenue where the 23-member grand jury investigating the case was meeting. A small army of TV crews and reporters waited for a Washington scandal's equivalent of white or black smoke to issue from the legal chimney.

By early afternoon, the colour seemed to be a murky shade of grey. Mr Fitzgerald is understood to have presented the conclusions of his two years of labours at a three-hour session, before the jury adjourned for the day.

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