October 28, 2005: Top White House aide quits over CIA leak

HIGHLIGHT

2005

A federal grand jury dramatically charged top White House aide I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby with lying to investigators in a CIA leak probe that has rocked President George W. Bush’s administration. Libby, chief of staff to Vice-President Dick Cheney, faces up to 30 years in jail and a $1.25 million (Dh4.6 million) fine if convicted in an explosive case arising from claims Bush aides “twisted” intelligence to justify the Iraq war. Libby resigned minutes after he was indicted, in an apparent bid to limit political fallout from an affair which threatens to badly taint the president’s second term. Libby, a discreet backroom player in Washington, faces one count of obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury and two counts of making false statements. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said in a statement that Libby allegedly lied to FBI agents who interviewed him and to the grand jury. The charges also said Libby engaged in obstruction of justice by impeding the grand jury investigation into the unauthorised disclosure of Valerie Plame’s identity.1636 Harvard College is founded in Massachusetts.

Others

1708 Sweden’s King Charles XII takes Mohilev, Russia, and invades Ukraine.

1793 US inventor Eli Whitney applies for a patent for the cotton gin, used to separate green seeds from staple-cotton.

1836 Federation of Peru and Bolivia is proclaimed.

1886 The Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, is dedicated in New York Harbour.

1916 Australian voters reject conscription for World War I by narrow margin.

1918 Czechoslovakia gains independence from Austria-Hungary.

1922 Benito Mussolini takes control of Italy.

1940 Italy invades Greece.

1956 Israeli troops invade Sinai Peninsula, later to be joined by British and French forces, following Egypt’s seizure of the Suez Canal from European control.

1962 Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev announces he has ordered the withdrawal of Soviet missiles from Cuba.

1974 Arab heads of state issue declaration calling for creation of independent Palestinian state.

1980 Saudi Arabia breaks off diplomatic relations with the Libyan Jamahiryah.

1983 The UN General Assembly approves a resolution calling on Vietnam to withdraw its occupation forces from Cambodia.

1985 The longest and costliest spy trial in British history ends when a jury acquit all seven alleged spies on all charges.

1989 UAE qualifies for Fifa World Cup 1990 finals for the first time.

1995 Metro train fire kills 300 people in Baku, Azerbaijan.

2000 Dubai Internet City is inaugurated.

2004 Palestinian President Yasser Arafat flown to Paris for treatment.

2006 An overcrowded bus plunges off a mountain road in western Nepal, leaving at least 42 people dead.

2007 First lady Cristina Fernandez becomes the first elected woman president of Argentine.

2008 Maldives votes to choose the first ever democratically elected president.

2009 A car bomb in Peshawar, Pakistan, kills more than 100.

2010 Two volcanoes erupt on Russia’s far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, tossing massive ash clouds miles into the air.

2011 Interior Minister Prince Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud is appointed as the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

2013 Giorgi Margvelashvili wins the presidential election in Georgia.

2014 An unmanned Antares rocket, carrying supplies to the International Space Station for Nasa, explodes six seconds after the launch in Wallops Island, Virginia.