I'm quoting this in full because it's a letter to Media Whores On-Line - I think the writer just wants to "get this out there", and Media Whores On-Line doesn't have permalinks.
If you do try to look this up on MWO, go to the website, then go to the bottom of the page, and keep clicking on 'Previous Issue' till you get back to Wednesday, 1 October 2003.http://www.mediawhoresonline.com/In a way, I understand Will Pitt's argument - posted elsewhere on General Discussion - that although Novak sucks, journalists shoudn't have to reveal their sources, so we shouldn't go after Novak.
However, there is something unusual here: The "source" in this case wasn't a whistleblower: The source was breaking the law by talking, so the act of talking and cold-calling was a crime in itself. Also, unlike real "whistleblower" cases, what was revealed was not some newsworthy law-breaking act - what was revealed was an innocent woman's CIA cover, and thereby national security was compromised.
Put Robert Novak in Jail(and throw away the key)
by Linda Hirshman
Am I the only one who’s noticed that Robert Novak violated the Espionage Act? The federal law, punishable by up to ten years in jail, punishes outsiders who engage in "a pattern of activities" intended to reveal the identities of covert operatives (assuming such identities are not public information, which is virtually always the case). Certainly willingly participating in an overt “administration” campaign to out a U.S. Intelligence operative in order to punish her husband for telling the truth about the WMD fiasco would qualify as such activity.
The law also explicitly punishes insiders who leak classified information. Novak has been so closely tied to the Administration, defending it and participating in its campaign to use friendly journalists to punish its enemies, that he would also qualify as an “insider” whom the law explicitly forbids to publish than a journalist anyway. Consider that six other real journalists were offered the career making leak and turned it down. Only Novak, the opinion flak for the Republican party published it.
If John Ashcroft’s Justice Department were not entirely corrupt they’d call a grand jury and threaten Novak with prosecution under the Espionage act and then offer to cut him a deal if he names his sources. If he doesn’t tell, they can prosecute him and subpoena his notes as evidence against him. (If they had acted in a timely fashion he wouldn’t already have shredded them.
Or call a grand jury and subpoena him as a witness in the investigation of the leakers. All the talking heads (journalists all, I might add) have been hawking the line that investigations of leaks all fail, because the only person who knows who violated the nation’s security is the journalist and of course the journalist won’t tell. Balderdash!! There is no constitutional or statutory protection for journalists.
Contrary to self-serving journalist’s propaganda, the Supreme Court has repeatedly refused to interpret the First Amendment to protect journalists from the operation of otherwise constitutional law enforcement. (Branzburg v. Hayes, 1972) Although some states and lower federal courts have recognized some qualified privilege in some circumstances, it is extremely unlikely that a court would find a privilege in the grand jury where espionage is concerned. And the Ashcroft Justice Department is the gold medal winner of forum shopping for law n order judges who will bend to the prosecutor’s will where the law is unclear. Take Robert Novak to that Virginia place where John Walker Lindh went.
Witnesses who won’t testify go to jail for contempt. I suggest the cell that Father whatsisname, the pederast from Boston, occupied. Oh, and you may remember Whitewater. What Bob Novak did is no different from what Susan MacDougal did, except there’s a big difference between a little real estate hanky panky and naming the name of an undercover American spy, who’s trying to protect all of us from another September 11. Indeed, Novak is worse than Susan MacDougal for another reason. Susan wouldn’t tell on Bill Clinton for the very good reason that she says he didn’t do anything. Beyond cavil, the administration flunkies who tried to blackmail all potential Joe Wilsons into silence by threatening their own intelligence service did something. All Novak has to do is tell us who they are. Why is it so easy to contemplate a trailer trash like Susan MacDougal in leg irons but not the ever so establishment Novak, with his fancy wardrobe, his exaggerated vocabulary and universally condescending manner. The guy’s no different than the “interpreters” and “chaplains” they’re dragging off of planes from Guantanamo Bay. He sold the United States’s security from attack in exchange for the political interests of his masters in the Republican Party.
Maybe Robert Novak would like to take his three piece suit and sit in a federal prison with an incarcerated loony until the grand jury term runs out. Hey, there’s a John Peter Zenger in every generation. I doubt it. But a real democracy would test it out.
Linda Hirshman, JD, PhD
Retired Allen-Berenson Professor of Philosophy
Brandeis University
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