In re—reading Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's affidavit (now online thanks to the blog YARGB), I notice that he recites the events of the Mission to Africa from Wilson's storyline and describes Wilson as a "whistleblower" long after the Senate Select Commission on Intelligence and the Butler Commission debunked that tale. Perhaps he was too busy to pay attention.

So also did Judge Tatel, who based his opinion in large part on "press reports." The rest of the panel  in the Miller appeal never seemed to notice. (Of course, as we have noted before, the press gave little coverage to the fact that Wilson had been exposed as a serial liar.)

Rich Lowry has an interesting contrast between the press treatment of those who leaked the prisons and NSA surveillance information to the press:

As his legal bills mount, Libby must be stunned to watch the lionization of the leakers who exposed the secret National Security Agency eavesdropping program and secret U.S. prisons in Europe. The new rule apparently is that leaks are acceptable only when they actually compromise important national—security programs. If, in contrast, a leak does no real harm to national security, but can be used as a cudgel against President Bush, then it is an act of national betrayal. 

Clarice Feldman   2 07 06