'Wash Post' Not Worried About Fight Over 'Black Sites' Story

By: Joe Strupp If The Washington Post is circling the wagons in preparation for a confidential sourcing fight with federal investigators, it certainly isn't showing it. Both reporter Dana Priest and Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr., tell E&P that no plans have been formulated to respond to a possible inquest by either Congress or the Justice Department about a Nov. 2 Priest story on secret overseas prisons.

"I don't have concerns at the moment because nothing has happened," Downie said Monday. "I don't want to speculate about this. I don't know if people are going to be seeking sources from us."

Priest, who declined comment on any potential investigation, said she had not met with any attorneys or Post officials about what may come next. "I'm trying not to pay attention to the discussion about investigations," she said. "I'm trying to focus on the next set of stories."

Priest's story, coming on the heels of the Judith Miller subpoena/jailing/resignation mess, drew both criticism and praise for reporting what she described as a "covert prison system" set up by the CIA four years ago. Priest's use of confidential sources prompted the House Intelligence Committee last week to launch an investigation into who leaked the information, while the CIA asked the Justice Department to review possible sources.

Post media critic Howard Kurtz wrote today, "the controversy could mushroom into another Valerie Plame fracas. If prosecutors get involved, Priest could face the same dilemma that confronted Time's Matt Cooper and former New York Times reporter Judith Miller: whether to reveal confidential sources under threat of imprisonment."

But Downie brushed off comparisons to the Miller matter, which arose from the search by a special prosecutor into who leaked the identity of CA Agent Valerie Plame to reporters. "I don't see a similarity," said Downie. "That was a special counsel investigation, not a Justice Department investigation and I don't know what the objective of the investigation is."

Downie also pointed to comments last week by Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee. Roberts said Congress should hold off on any investigation until the Justice Department is done. "If there is reason to continue after their investigation, we'll do it," The Hill newspaper Web site quoted him as saying. "It's the same thing we did on the Valerie Plame issue."

"I have no idea what they are going to do," Downie added. "I know they are talking about looking internally into the administration. I have no idea what is going to happen here. We always maintain the confidentiality of our sources."

While Priest did not want to comment on any investigation into leaks, she defended her story's approach, noting it was no different than numerous articles she had done in the past. Those included "writing about how the military under the Clinton Administration became the lead tool in U.S. foreign policy," she said. "I wrote a whole book about that. It is the same kind of reporting, getting into an institution and finding out what they are doing."

Priest added that, "I think it has caused so much talk because it is secret and the public has not come to a consensus on whether it is good or bad," she said.

The reporter also noted that response to the article has been "all over the map. People have called up and said the story should never have been printed and we should not write about government secrets, and doing so is treason. Then on the other side, people think we are complacent in torture because we did not name the [exact] locations."