The leak

Capital suggestion

2002: President Bush sent Ambassador Joseph Wilson to Niger to “investigate reports that the African nation sold uranium to Iraq….” Ambassador Wilson “found no evidence of the sale.” President Bush still went on to claim that Iraq “possessed weapons of mass destruction”. Colin Powell, then secretary of state, issued a fact sheet asserting that Saddam Hussein had procured “yellowcake” uranium from Niger. George Tenet, CIA director, testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Saddam Hussein had purchased uranium from Niger.

2003: On March 20, President Bush invaded Iraq. The president’s stated mission: “To disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction.” On July 6, Ambassador Wilson wrote an op-ed in The New York Times titled ‘What I didn’t find in Africa’ stating his doubts that Saddam Hussein had procured uranium from Niger.

President Bush and his team, seeking political retribution for Ambassador Wilson’s op-ed, leaked classified information to the media. President Bush and his team leaked to the press that Valerie Plame Wilson, Ambassador Wilson’s wife, was a covert officer of the CIA.

The US Department of Justice Office of Special Counsel convened a Grand Jury to investigate the leak. The Grand Jury proceedings came to be known as ‘the CIA leak Grand Jury investigation’.

2005: Judith Miller, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter, of The New York Times, Washington Bureau, was called by the Grand Jury to testify (as she was ‘believed to be in possession of evidence relevant’ to the CIA leak investigation). Judith Miller invoked reporter’s privilege and refused to divulge the name of the source (reporter’s privilege is “reporter’s protection under constitutional or statutory law from being compelled to testify about confidential information or sources”).

The federal district court held Judith Miller in civil contempt of court. On July 6, Judith Miller was sent to jail “after a federal judge declared that she was defying the law by refusing to divulge the name of a confidential source”.

In United States v Libby, Bush administration officials Richard Armitage (then US deputy secretary of state), Karl Rove (then White House deputy chief of staff), and Lewis Libby (then chief of staff to the vice president of the US) were responsible for the leak.

2014: James Risen, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter of the Los Angeles Times, invoked reporter’s privilege and refused to reveal his source in the leak trial of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling. The US Court of Appeals ruled that “so long as the subpoena is issued in good faith and is based on a legitimate need of law enforcement, the government need not make any special showing to obtain evidence of criminal conduct from a reporter in a criminal proceeding.”

James Risen appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States. The Supreme Court rejected Risen’s appeal and “ruled the government can compel him to reveal his source….”

Conclusion 1: National security is the key. Almost “all the federal and state courts have found that state and federal constitutions provide a qualified privilege to allow journalists to keep private the names of their confidential sources…..”

Conclusion 2: National security is the key. A “qualified privilege balances the journalist’s interest in confidentiality with the interest of the party seeking the reporter’s evidence. A qualified privilege can be overcome if the opposing interest is sufficiently important.” If the government can show that there is a ‘compelling and overriding national interest in obtaining the information’ then a reporter can be compelled to reveal his source or sources.

National security is more important that privacy. National security is more important than civil liberties. National security is more important than individual freedom. National security is the key.

Who said, “Lose lips, sink ships?”

The writer is a columnist based in Islamabad.

Email: farrukh15@hotmail.com. Twitter: @saleemfarrukh