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Jewish World Review July 8, 2005 / 1 Taamuz, 5765 Memo to the truly ‘objective’: Leakers are people with an agenda. At best, they tell just part of the story By Jack Kelly
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Judith Miller of the New York Times is in jail, for running afoul of the law
of unintended consequences. What began two years ago as an effort to smear
President Bush has backfired, big time.
Miller is in jail because she won't tell Special Prosecutor Patrick
Fitzgerald who told her that Valerie Plame, wife of former Ambassador Joseph
C. Wilson IV, worked for the CIA.
Wilson gained his 15 minutes of fame in 2003 when he claimed in an op-ed in
the New York Times that President Bush had lied in his State of the Union
address that year when Bush claimed Saddam Hussein had sought to buy uranium
in Africa.
The CIA had sent Wilson to Niger in February, 2002 to determine whether that
country had sold "yellowcake" ore to Iraq. After an eight day investigation
which he described as sitting around the hotel pool, "drinking sweet mint
tea, meeting with dozens of people," Wilson concluded that Niger had not.
Or so he said in his op-ed.
Once the story broke, columnist Bob Novak asked two officials why the CIA
had selected Wilson — who has no intelligence background and strong
anti-administration sentiments — for this mission. One told him Wilson's
wife was in the CIA. Novak published her name.
It's against the law deliberately to disclose the identity of a covert
agent. Demands were made for a special prosecutor to track down the leaker.
Journalists lost interest in the case last July when the Senate Intelligence
Committee concluded it was Wilson who was lying. Wilson had said in his
report to the CIA that Iraqis had indeed approached Nigerien officials about
buying yellowcake.
But the special prosecutor had been appointed by then. Fitzgerald demanded
that Miller and Matthew Cooper of Time magazine tell the grand jury what
they knew about the leaker. They refused.
Many wonder why Fitzgerald is pursuing the case so zealously, since it will
be difficult to prove a crime was committed. The identities protection act
was passed in 1982 after rogue CIA officer Philip Agee published a list of
CIA officers operating under cover overseas, and one of them was
assassinated.
Fitzgerald first has to prove the leaker intended to out Plame. If the
disclosure were inadvertent, the law does not apply.
It also isn't clear that Plame is a "covert agent" under the statute. She
was holding down a staff job at CIA headquarters at the time Novak published
her name.
Finally, the leaker is off the hook if it were known beforehand that Plame
was a CIA officer. "Sources close to the investigation say there is
evidence in some instances that some reporters may have told government
officials — not the other way around — that Wilson was married to Plame,"
Carol Leonnig reported in the Washington Post Wednesday.
Cooper isn't in jail because his source gave Cooper explicit permission to
name him. Miller is because hers didn't, which suggests more than one
government official named Plame.
Liberals salivated when Lawrence O'Donnell, MSNBC's unhinged political
analyst, declared that Cooper's source was Bush political guru Karl Rove.
But Cooper's notes indicate only that he talked to Rove (among other
people). Rove's lawyer denied his client mentioned Plame to Cooper, and
said Rove has signed an affidavit freeing journalists from any promises of
confidentiality. Rove's lawyer said also Fitzgerald has assured him Rove
is not a target of the investigation.
Jailing Miller could have a chilling effect on the use of anonymous sources,
journalists warn. But that would be a good thing. Leakers are people with
an agenda. At best, they tell just part of the story. Often, they lie.
Joe Wilson leaked his story to columnist Nicholas Kristof of the New York
Times before "going public" in his op-ed.
Limiting anonymous sources would hurt the people's right to know,
journalists say. But as law professor Glenn Reynolds noted in an article in
USA Today, the journalists involved know who outed Valerie Plame. They just
aren't telling us.
"Journalists aren't claiming the right to tell us things we want to know,"
Reynolds said. "They're claiming the right to not tell things they'd rather
we didn't know."
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© 2005, Jack Kelly |
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