This is not the guy to focus on
The Plame leak investigation carries on, and I am troubled. The technique being used reminds me of how I because diabetic as a side effect of taking prednisone for something else entirely.
It is important to find out who in this administration cares so little for law and national security that they just hand out undercover operative's names to punish their spouses. I STRONGLY feel this administration's operatives did this; they released the name of a very effective mole to help address the distrust most intelligent humans have developed in them because of their own blunders.
I'm not that thrilled about them going through anyone who reported on the story at all. This is another punitive measure, and the ONE PERSON THAT SHOULD BE SUBJECT TO SUCH TREATMENT
The envoy, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, was recommended for the CIA mission by his wife, Plame, a CIA nonproliferation "operative," Novak wrote, adding that two administration officials offered the information as an explanation of why Wilson was selected. By then, Wilson was publicly accusing the Bush administration of "twisting" intelligence, including his findings in Niger, to build a case for going to war in Iraq.
Novak's lawyer, James Hamilton, declined to comment yesterday on whether his client has received a subpoena.
...is called last, and any reporter that refuses to divulge their source and "gets away" with it will be precident for Novak. And if no one refuses, that will be precident for the next extremist administration (and you'll note there's no political party attached to that statement).
Anyway…
Reporter Held In Contempt in CIA Leak Case
By Susan Schmidt and Carol Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, August 10, 2004; Page A01A federal judge has held a Time magazine reporter in contempt of court for refusing to testify in an investigation of the leak of a CIA officer's identity, rejecting requests from two media organizations to quash federal grand jury subpoenas seeking information from the media.
U.S. District Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan ruled that the First Amendment does not insulate reporters from Time and NBC News from a requirement to testify before a criminal grand jury that is conducting the investigation into the possible illegal disclosure of classified information. He unsealed an order that demands the "confinement" of Time reporter Matthew Cooper, who has refused to testify in the probe, but stayed it pending an appeal.
The judge's opinion, reached July 20 but not released until yesterday, will be immediately appealed, Time executives said. Hogan also issued an Aug. 6 order confining Cooper "at a suitable place until such time as he is willing to comply with the grand jury subpoena," and ordered Time to be fined $1,000 a day. The fine was also stayed while the magazine's expedited appeal is considered.
While NBC fought a subpoena issued May 21 and was included in the opinion, it avoided a contempt citation after Tim Russert, moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press," agreed to an interview over the weekend in which he answered a limited number of questions posed by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald, NBC said in a statement.
Lawyers involved in the case said it appears that Fitzgerald is now armed with a strong and unambiguous court ruling to demand the testimony of two journalists -- syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak, who first disclosed the CIA officer's name, and Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus, who has written that a Post reporter received information about her from a Bush administration official.
Pincus was served with a subpoena yesterday after Hogan's order was unsealed.
