Judith Miller, the embattled foreign correspondent for The New York Times, seems ready to go to jail rather than testify before a grand jury trying to find out who leaked the name of a CIA operative to several Washington, D.C,. reporters. "I can't tell you what I am going to do yet," Miller said in an upbeat voice during the first of two cell phone interviews. But later, when told that Lucy Dalglish, executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, seemed sure that she would stonewall prosecutors, Miller elaborated a little.
"What I know of Judith Miller, there is no way in hell that she will be willing to testify," Dalglish had told E&P. When that quote was read to Miller, she laughed and said: "I think that's right, and it's what my lawyer would say, too." The special prosecutor is trying to determine who leaked the name of a CIA agent to Robert Novak. So far, Glenn Kessler and Walter Pincus of The Washington Post, Matthew Cooper of Time Magazine, and Tim Russert, host of NBC's Meet The Press, have given sworn depositions in their lawyers' offices. They gave their testimony after their sources waived their confidentiality agreements. But The Times believes that the Bush Administration forced White House officials and others to sign the waivers, making them invalid. A source who did not voluntarily waive his right to keep his name private might sue the newspaper later for violating that agreement.
| Sure can't have a reporter cooperating in a matter of law enforcement, now can we? What would all the snitches say? |
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