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February 16, 2005
Jailing of Journalists Upheld

The two reporters being charged with contempt of court for refusing to disclose confidential sources in the Valerie Plame affair have lost their latest appeal.

Neither reporter actually used the information in an article, but the three-federal-judge panel determined that was irrelevant.

Robert Novak, meanwhile, is the only person who did write publicly that Valerie Plame was a covert operative. He hasn't been charged with any crime. The only (reasonable) explanation for that would be that he has cooperated with the grand jury. He has no comment.

Scariest about all of this is all of the secrecy involved.

Aspects of the case remain secret. Mr. Fitzgerald submitted secret evidence to the appeals court that neither the reporters nor their lawyers were allowed to see. And the public version of Judge Tatel's concurrence includes eight blank pages along with the notation that they have been redacted.

That is scary, Ms. Miller said.

"I risk going to jail," she said, "for a story I didn't write, for reasons a court won't explain."

The New York Times

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