The New York Times has just published a stunning discovery — the real identity of the leaker who "outed" Valerie Plame, famous non—spy and disinformation expert. In an article that deserves to be nominated for the Walter Duranty Prize the Times pretends it didn't know the answer all along. 

And nobody, but nobody knows anything about Joe Wilson's famous New York Times Op—Ed editorial that started a perfect storm of false accusations against Vice President Cheney, Karl Rove, Lewis Libby, and George W. Bush.

In fact, this article is a total whitewash of the NYT, presumably with an eye toward defending itself from prosecution. With a perfectly straight face, Mr. Lewis writes:

The identification of Mr. Armitage as the original leaker to Mr. Novak ends what has been a tantalizing mystery. In recent months, however, Mr. Armitage's role had become clear to many, and it was recently reported by Newsweek magazine and The Washington Post.

So it was WaPo and Newsweek that knew all along. Never mind the bloggers and internet journalists, and never mind Patrick Fitzgerald.

James Lewis   8 30 06