Irv(e) Lewis "Scooter" Libby has been chief of staff and national security advisor to U.S. vice president Dick Cheney since 2001. Known in the media as "Dick Cheney's Dick Cheney," Libby is a behind-the-scenes Washington insider who is associated with influential foreign policy experts called "neo-cons" (neo-conservatives), a group whose post-Cold War strategy focused on the military supremacy of the United States and the political re-structuring of the Middle East. Libby is a graduate of Yale University (1972) and has a law degree from Columbia University (1975). In addition to practicing law, he has worked in government since 1981, when he joined Paul Wolfowitz (his former professor at Yale) at the Department of State under President Ronald Reagan. During the administration of George H.W. Bush Libby worked for the Department of Defense, but during the Clinton years he worked with the U.S. House of Representatives and was the managing partner of the law firm Dechert, Price and Rhoads (1995-2001). Although Libby has avoided the spotlight throughout most of his career, since 2003 he and Karl Rove have been central figures in rumor-filled news stories about Valerie Plame Wilson, the C.I.A. operative "outed" by columnist Robert Novak.

Libby is also the author of a novel, The Apprentice (1996)... Libby was the attorney for Marc Rich, the fugitive billionaire pardoned by President Clinton just before George W. Bush took office.