Time to disclose sources in U.S. press freedom case By Claudia Parsons

Plame’s husband, Joseph Wilson, a career diplomat engaged by the Bush administration to investigate whether Iraq had sought nuclear weapons, accused the White House of being responsible for the leak. He said officials did so because Wilson had publicly disputed a claim by President Bush about Iraq’s attempts to secure such weapons.

Interviewed by CNN this week, Novak declined to say whether he had cooperated with investigators in the case.

William Safire wrote in The New York Times this week that Novak, known for writing opinion columns favorable to the Bush administration, owed fellow journalists an explanation for how his sources “managed to get the prosecutor off his back.”

The key issue is that toady Novak helped someone in the Bush administration commit a federal crime. And, yet, other reporters are being prosecuted, not him. Why not? Has he spilled the beans in secret (cowardly for a journalist) or has he been given special treatment for his loyalty to Duhbya? mjh