"What an abuse of power," Wilson said. "What the hell are they doing using taxpayer funded employees to root around and find information on me?"
Libby's intense interest in Wilson may help explain why he has become a focus in the federal investigation into who leaked Valerie Plame's name.
The case had its origins in early 2002, when Cheney asked the CIA for information on reports that Iraq had sought to purchase uranium yellowcake from the African nation of Niger.
In response to Cheney's queries, the CIA decided to send Wilson, who had served in the region and was familiar with the uranium trade, to investigate. Wilson's wife was working undercover for the CIA on weapons issues at the time.
On his trip to Niger, Wilson found little reason to believe the Iraqis had sought the uranium, and on his return reported his findings to CIA officials.
In January 2003, President Bush in his State of the Union address cited Iraq's interest in African uranium as a sign of President Saddam Hussein's interest in acquiring nuclear weapons. In July, Wilson penned an op-ed piece for the New York Times describing his findings and suggesting that the president had distorted intelligence to justify an invasion of Iraq.
Within days, administration officials were telling reporters that Wilson had been sent to Niger as a boondoggle arranged by his wife, who worked at the CIA. Syndicated columnist Robert Novak published her name on July 14.
It can be a felony to knowingly leak the identity of a covert agent, and in late 2003 the Justice Department appointed Fitzgerald to investigate. Fitzgerald is nearing the end of his inquiry into the leak and has focused on Rove and Libby, among others.
Rove and Libby have both reportedly testified that they learned about Plame from others, did not know she had covert status and did not reveal her name to reporters. The White House and a lawyer for Libby declined to comment Thursday.
The documents and interviews portray Libby as highly attuned to detail. He dictated the format for internal memos, including that paragraphs be indented.
The documents and interviews show that, when it came to monitoring media coverage of Wilson and other issues affecting the vice president's reputation, Libby was meticulous. Staffers were instructed to use Nexis and Google to watch even the most obscure publications.
The sensitivity extended in at least one case to the vice president's daughter, Liz Cheney, who worked as a campaign advisor.
During a time of tension between the New York Times and the campaign over coverage, aides recommended that a reporter from the paper be allowed to fly aboard Cheney's plane with others in the press corps. Liz Cheney had a different idea.
Writing from her Blackberry, a mobile e-mail device, she noted that her father was upset with a story that appeared in that morning's newspaper, saying: "vp has totally had it with nytimes. This is really not the right time to ask him to charm a reporter from that paper."
The reporter was excluded from the vice president's plane.
