[nukkad] Protecting Confidential Sources

["Pravin Walunjkar" <"Pravin Walunjkar" <Pravin@mahabank.co.in>>]

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Women are made to be loved, not to be understood - Oscar Wilde
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Protecting Confidential Sources

Former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee is back in the news. Now he is
suing the federal government for supposedly violating his Privacy Act
rights. His lawsuit claims that government officials violated those
rights by leaking personal information from his employment records to
the media. Efforts by his lawyers to pry the names of the supposed
offenders out of government officials have thus far failed. 

So Lee decided to go after a handful of reporters who covered the story
back in 1999. These include Jeff Gerth and Jim Risen of the New York
Times, Bob Drogin of the Los Angles Times, the AP's Josef Hebert, and
Pierre Thomas, then working for CNN. Curiously absent from the list is
Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus, who was the first to pinpoint a
suspect in the W88 espionage case as an Asian-American computer
scientist working at Los Alamos. In October, federal judge Thomas
Penfield Jackson, famous for his handling of the Microsoft case, ordered
the reporters to submit to depositions. 

Gerth and Risen were the first to face Lee's lawyers, shortly before
Christmas. By all accounts, both refused to disclose their sources or
hand over their notes and other documents, as ordered by the judge. If
Jackson finds them in contempt for not answering questions about their
sources, the two could face jail time. The Times is supporting its
journalists. In a public statement, a spokesperson said protection of
confidential sources is a "principle we believe is critical for the
press to provide a free flow of information to the public." 

Media advocacy groups think Jackson's ruling is threatening the First
Amendment right of freedom of the press. Reporters without Borders has
appealed to Judge Jackson to rescind his order. Jackson has dismissed
First Amendment claims as "frivolous." But Reporters without Borders
says that his order "threatens one of the bases of investigative
journalism, an essential element of democracy." 

Not all media types think Jackson's order is a bad idea. Los Angles
Times columnist Robert Scheer thinks in this case reporters should be
forced to reveal their sources. Scheer, a noted far-left journalist,
claims anonymous government officials deliberately leaked false
information to the media about Lee, although he doesn't explain exactly
why. 

Like Alger Hiss, Lee seems to think that the best defense is a good
offense. His supporters on both ends of the political spectrum have
portrayed him as an innocent scapegoat of a vengeful government. Never
mind that a declassified Justice Department report revealed two decades
worth of suspicious activity by Lee on behalf of the Peoples Republic of
China. Or that a federal prosecutor concluded that sufficient probable
cause had existed to suspect Lee of conducting espionage on behalf of
China. But the media, including the Times, have completely ignored this
part of the Wen Ho Lee story. Lee, of course, pled guilty to one felony
count of mishandling classified information. 


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have a great day !
- pravin walunjkar. 
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