This week's culmination of the two-year long White House leak of Valerie Plame with the indictment of "Scooter" Libby did little to resolve ongoing questions of who exactly leaked the information, and whether that leaking was against the law. But it did help me to come to a number of conclusions in regards to the major players who have been involved in this whole controversy.
First, I now have great respect for Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor who was in charge of the investigation. His performance in the news conference on Friday indicated that he is an extremely smart, no-nonsense kind of guy who was interested first and foremost in doing his job to the best of his ability, rather than engaging in partisan destructiveness through his unique but temporary appointment to be the special prosecutor in this case (see Kenneth Star as an example). Fitzgerald, like Justice John G. Roberts, inspires me as a law student, even as I just now begin my legal career.
Secondly, I think it is clear that the journalists involved in this case are a disgrace to their profession. Judy Miller created a self-serving spectacle with her refusal to cooperate with Fitzgerald, and subsequently enjoyed the fanfare of her brief stint in prison. After months of theatrics, Miller finally agreed to testify after receiving a waiver from Libby, her source, who apparently claims that he had given her the waiver to reveal him as her source far earlier in this whole process. To make things worse, after all this nonsense, Judy Miller's testimony to the grand jury amounted to a confession that she just "didn't remember" how she found out who Valerie Plame was. Still in question is why Miller had written the name Valerie "Flame" in her notes after a talk with Libby. When pressed for elaboration, Miller again resorted to an excuse of ignorance and bad memory.
Bob Novak, unlike Miller, succeeded in remaining a behind-the-scenes figure in this big mess. We still don't know exactly what he told Fitzgerald, although he must have named someone as a source. Novak's column in the post revealed Plame as a CIA agent and was the initial public announcement of the leak. If it weren't for that column, this entire investigation may never have ensued. How did Novak escape accountability? And why aren't more people talking about his role in this case?
I know there has been no indictment concerning the actual foundation of the case, which was the leak of Plame. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you must, but there are too many things indicating that someone DID break a law here, even though there might not be enough hard evidence for an indictment. First, why would Judy Miller go to jail over information that she "could not remember?" Was it really just to make a statement about journalists and how there should be a shield law protecting them from revealing sources? Second, why did Novak storm off a CNN set and issue profanities on national TV after being pressed by James Carville to be candid about how he heard about Valerie Plame? And thirdly, why did Libby lie to the grand jury?
Conservatives have little sympathy for Valerie Plame, and even less for Joe Wilson, her husband who went to Niger and supposedly found out information contradicting the administration's arguments that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons. Joe Wilson is no saint. But he didn't break a law here. Someone in the administration, on the other hand, clearly did.
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