NYT - Prosecutor's Progress Is Rare for Leak Inquiries

[DoYouEverWonder]

October 26, 2005

WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 - Until now, the federal government has rarely proved more impotent than in trying to plug leaks. Most inquiries go nowhere, because the officials and journalists who are the only witnesses to any crime refuse to discuss it.

But in the case of Valerie Wilson, the outed C.I.A. officer, a prosecutor has succeeded in penetrating that sanctum. Unlike any of his predecessors, the special counsel, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, has delved deeply into conversations that government officials and reporters had every reason to believe would remain confidential.

It is not yet clear if Mr. Fitzgerald intends to bring charges that will cast the conversations themselves as criminal, as settings for the exchange of classified information. But even indictments containing less serious accusations against White House officials would bring with them the possibility that reporters would be called as witnesses.

Exchanges between reporters and government officials have always been a central part of how Washington really works. They have served as shortcuts, ways to trade information beyond the glare of television lights and outside of bureaucratic barriers. But Mr. Fitzgerald, who obtained federal subpoenas to compel reporters to testify in the case, is not the only one in Washington who is trying to train a new kind of spotlight on the transactions.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/national/26inquire.html

[rodeodance]

1. I think the WH was overconfident when they finally agreed to a special

procector for this case. They initally 'blew it off'. We will see what happens.

[DoYouEverWonder]

2. That's why at the least they've commited perjury

because in the beginning they never thought anything would really come of it, so they lied their asses off to the GJ and the public.