Watch this case close

By Andy Sullivan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condo Rice could join Vice President Dick Cheney as a potential witness in the perjury trial of Cheney's former top aide, as jury selection began on Tuesday in the case which has cast a spotlight on how the White House justified war in Iraq.
The names of Cheney, Rice and her predecessor, Colin Powell, appeared on a long list of government officials and news reporters who may be called as witnesses or whose names may come up in the trial of Cheney's former chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
Libby is charged with lying to investigators during a probe to determine who leaked the classified identity of a CIA operative whose husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, publicly criticized the Bush administration's use of intelligence in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
Theodore Wells, one of Libby's lawyers, said political issues would be unavoidable during the trial.
Wilson "has become in effect the poster child for the issue of whether the Bush administration lied to the American public," Wells said. "From Day One this trial is going to be about ... Mr. Wilson's allegations."
Cheney has already said he expected to testify. Others on the list include White House political advisor Karl Rove, former CIA director George Tenet and former Pentagon secretary Paul Wolfowitz.
Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald asked one potential juror if she would have trouble seeing Rice as a credible witness if she were to testify.
Rice served as Bush's national security adviser during that time.
Libby's defense team plans to argue that he was too preoccupied with national-security matters to accurately remember conversations he may have had about the CIA operative, Valerie Plame..