Reporters Put Under Scrutiny in C.I.A. Plame Leak

Leak investigations are often halfhearted and one-sided enterprises. Suspected leakers are questioned, not always vigorously or under oath, and the source of the disclosure is seldom found. The journalists who could say for sure are almost never subpoenaed. The Plame case is different. This is largely because, unlike most leaks, the disclosure of an undercover intelligence agent's identity is a felony. The disclosure of Ms. Plame's identity, moreover, may have been motivated by politics. And the investigation inside the government, in which the president, the vice president and many other officials have been questioned, seems to have been both exhaustive and inconclusive. The only remaining witnesses to the crime are the journalists who received the information about Ms. Plame, leaving them to make agonizing choices against a backdrop of diminishing legal protection. In recent years, courts have become increasingly skeptical of a journalistic article of faith: that the benefits to society of the information provided by confidential sources outweigh the costs to the justice system of allowing reporters to protect their source. [more ]