a potential blow to source confidentiality - from NYT

What??? How is it possible for justice to be lead so astray in this country that Robert Novak is still walking around a free man? And how ironic that this scandal could have the potential to rob journalists of their sources by removing all protections of confidentiality. Thanks, Bob, I hope you're happy now.

> A Leak Probe Gone Awry
> When the Justice Department opened an investigation a year ago into
> the question of how Robert Novak obtained the name of a covert
> Central Intelligence Agency operative for publication in his
> syndicated column, we expressed two basic concerns. The first was
> the need for an independent inquiry led by someone without Attorney
> General John Ashcroft's ultra-close ties to the White House. That
> was addressed belatedly with the naming of a special prosecutor,
> Patrick Fitzgerald, to pursue the accusations that unnamed Bush
> administration officials illegally leaked the woman's undercover
> role in an effort to stifle criticism of Iraq policy by her
> husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson IV.
>
> Unfortunately, our second, overriding fear has become a reality.
> The focus of the leak inquiry has lately shifted from the Bush
> White House, where it properly belongs, to an attempt to compel
> journalists to testify and reveal their sources.

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