A couple things that I disagree with in your analysis. Try here for the story behind the controversy, at least the portion before I give my opinion. Ms. Miller wasn't the first to out Ms. Plame, Mr. Robert Novak was the first to leak her identity, and through the investigation, it was found that Movak, Matt Cooper (Time Magazine), and Ms. Miller all knew beforehand that Ms. Plame was an undercover CIA agent. The question is not whether they knew, it is a question of who told them, because only people with "secret" clearance or above could know her identity. Ms. Miller has been given a waiver by her source - Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby - but she refuses to break confidentiality, due to her journalistic integrity. The reason she refuses to divulge it is that she has said Scooter Libby's waiver must have been coerced. However, Plame could not have been outed by Miller without Miller having a source. All evidence points to her source being either Scooter Libby or Karl Rove, especially when Novak and Cooper's possible sources are taken into account.

The second thing is your statement that all Americans have the right to confront one's accuser. That is completely untrue. Confidential sources are a staple of free press, and the first Amendment guarantees free press. The sixth Amendment, which you are thinking about, actually states:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

That means, if Karl Rove and/or Scooter Libby end up being prosecuted, then the witnesses against them shall be theirs to confront, in their trial, which will probably be public, though not speedy. In other words, if someone calls you a traitor, you're not entitled to know who said it. If you get indicted based upon that someone's statement, then you can know who it is.

Keep up the writing!
~Brown

Once again thankyou for your input. Very interesting. However i dispute the fact is was Novak who outed Plame. Again it was common knowledge in Washington that she was an employee of the CIA. Due to the fact she bragged about it. Secondly there is evidance she was outed in abook several years prior to Novaks comment. [See the Drudge report.]
Then as I read the amendment it says that the accused has the right to confront the accuser. I dem this as pre trial hearings as well. Which means that the defense has the right to gather information on the accuser to prepare a defense prior to trial.
The last is the interpretation of freedom of the press. I do not see where it states that the press has protected sources. I read it as the government cannot halt the press from publishing a story or an opinion but I do not see where it is granted the right to have secrete and annonomuse sources.

Again a differance in opinion. I thank you for your input again and encourage the comments. [side note thanks for not going off on my poor spelling and typing skills =) ]

Sorry it took me so long to respond to this comment. I wanted to make sure I researched this thoroughly before I posted a comment, but nobody knew that Plame was an operative. Go here to see the misconstruction of a comment that led people to believe that her cover was blown, which it wasn't until Robert Novak blew it. Here is another site showing where the media blew it by misconstruing comments that seemed to imply Ms. Plame's compromised position came before Mr. Novak's story.

Onto the legal implications of the sixth Amendment, where we differ in opinion on interpretation. Pre-trial hearings are conducted in a land of opinion known as the press. In order to prepare a defense, the defendant may know what the witness is going to say, but there's a reason that confidentiality is protected, and that is for the safety of the witness. Also, the funniest thing about this is that Ms. Miller's "unnamed" source is Scooter Libby - Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff - and she has refused to testify on the grounds that she feels his waiver (to allow any reporter who talked to him about the Plame incident) was coerced. So, actually, by refusing to testify, she is possibly saving the Bush Administration some embarassment.

Also, we disagree on interpretation of free press. Free press means that people are supposed to believe that the press has not been tampered with in any way. The reason that anonymous sources are important is that stories that are important sometimes have no other way to get out without the anonymity of the source being protected. A famous example of an anonymous source is Deep Throat. Anonymous sources are important in order to have a free press, just like informants are important in order to catch some slippery criminals. That being said, rarely is a story based upon just one anonymous source. In the case of the Plame scandal, there were two separate anonymous sources who confirmed the story - Messrs. Rove (probably) and Libby (definitely). In the case of Watergate, Deep Throat was never cited as a source, and he only gave Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward nudges in the right direction. Never was a single anonymous source actually used to build the case/story, rather serving more of a guidance role, pointing the reporters in the direction of the story which they wished to be written. That is the role that anonymous sources need to serve in a free press, and that is the rold that they did serve. They shouldn't make the story, they should just help it along - within the realms of truthfulness. The only problem in this case is that the anonymous source(s) weren't only leaking a story, they broke federal laws with leaking national secrets. Stating that a piece of information that was classified as "Secret" was "common knowledge" in Washington says only one thing: Our government is careless when it comes to national security. So, either the Bush Administration was careless, as the words "common knowledge" imply, or it was criminal, as the leak(s) being Scooter Libby and/or Karl Rove implies.

Finally, I do see that we have a fundamental difference in opinion, but what reason would I have to make fun of your spelling and/or typing skills? I feel that we should debate and discuss the issues; your spelling is not an issue: your opinions are about what I'm talking, to what I'm talking, and to what I'm responding.

~Brown

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