New York Times journo freed

2005-09-30 08:19

Washington - New York Times reporter Judith Miller was released from prison after agreeing to testify in a federal probe on the outing of an undercover CIA agent, the newspaper announced on Thursday.

Miller, who spent 12 weeks in a prison near Washington, was set free after her source waived her pledge of confidentiality, The Times said.

"That source was I Lewis Libby, Vice-President Dick Cheney's chief of staff," the daily said, citing "people who have been officially briefed on the case."

"It's good to be free," Miller said in a statement released by the paper.

She will testify as soon as Friday, the statement said.

Showdown

"I went to jail to preserve the time-honoured principle that a journalist must respect a promise not to reveal the identity of a confidential source. I chose to take the consequences - 85 days in prison - rather than violate that promise," she said.

"I am leaving jail today because my source has now voluntarily and personally released me from my promise of confidentiality regarding our conversations relating to the Wilson-Plame matter.

"This enables me to appear before the Grand Jury tomorrow. I'll say nothing more until after my testimony."

Miller was sent to prison July 6 after a showdown between the United States government and the press over a case involving the White House, press freedom and the rationale for the Iraq war.

She had refused to name her sources to a federal prosecutor examining which official leaked the name of CIA spy Valerie Plame.

Plame's husband, former US ambassador Joseph Wilson, claimed her cover was blown in revenge for an article he penned in The New York Times, criticising President George W Bush's justification for war with Iraq.

Another journalist, Time Magazine's Matthew Cooper, almost met the same fate but was granted a last minute reprieve after his source cleared him to testify.

Both reporters were sentenced to 18 months in jail for contempt of court.

Miller, a veteran of years of Middle East coverage, was thought likely to stay in jail until she agreed to testify, or until the mandate of a grand jury probing the case ran out in October.

Plame's name was first published in a column by veteran reporter Robert Novak in 2003, which cited senior administration officials.

Wilson claimed his wife was outed as punishment for his contradiction of Bush's assertion in the 2003 State of the Union address that Saddam Hussein sought yellowcake uranium from Niger to build nuclear weapons.

Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's probe into the leak has featured interviews with Bush, former secretary of state Colin Powell, and Bush's chief political advisor Karl Rove.

Miller had researched the case but did not actually write an article on it.

- AFP