Reporter is freed for CIA scandal hearing

The Telegraph
Oct. 01, 2005

A journalist imprisoned for shielding a White House source testified before a grand jury yesterday, bringing to a climax a two-year investigation involving some of America's most powerful officials.

Judith Miller of the New York Times was released after 12 weeks in prison. Her source, identified elsewhere as Lewis Libby, chief of staff for the vice-president Dick Cheney, had said he had no objection to her testifying.

After three hours giving evidence, Miss Miller said: "I served 85 days in jail because of my belief in the importance of upholding the confidential relationship journalists have with their sources. I did not want to be in jail. But I would have stayed even longer."

Then she headed home to Long Island where, she said, she was eager to have a home-cooked meal and hug her dog.

Her appearance ended a three-month stand-off with the federal authorities and set the stage for a federal prosecutor to publish his conclusions about a saga that has embarrassed the White House.

The investigation is intended to discover who in the Bush administration leaked the identity of a CIA agent, Valerie Plame, to a columnist two years ago. Unmasking an agent can be a federal crime.

Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, is a former ambassador who in 2003 challenged one of the administration's principal claims about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Mr Wilson accused the White House of leaking his wife's name and identity to destroy her career and punish him.

The White House denied that anyone on Mr Bush's staff leaked her name. But his chief political adviser, Karl Rove, and Mr Libby have admitted discussing the story with journalists.

Miss Miller never wrote a story about Plame but has become a heroine of media pressure groups for going to prison to protect her source in defiance of a court order.