Who’s to Blame for the Leaking Mess?

Re “The Judy Miller Media Hug-Fest,” Commentary, July 6: The Rosa Brooks diatribe against New York Times reporter Judith Miller begs the question: Who wrote the CIA operative outing piece but has not been called to identify the source? (Columnist Robert Novak, who destroyed an agent’s effectiveness and risked the lives of all those with whom she worked in order to punish her husband.)

Brooks is clearly another administration shill out to intimidate anyone who does not pander to the party line.

Miller trusted wrongly when she published the articles supporting WMD from “unidentified” sources in the administration. She was correct when she did not publish the leaked name of CIA agent Valerie Plame.

Larry Severson

Fountain Valley

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Thank you, Rosa Brooks! This is precisely my sentiment on Miller and her protection of White House sources, whose story she so willingly told on WMD. I agree that she bears a large share of responsibility for selling this war.

Cornelia Connelly

Brooklin, Maine

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Re “Rove Talked But Did Not Tattle, His Attorney Says,” July 3: Although we don’t have proof that Karl Rove was the source of the leak, we do know that Plame’s identity as a covert CIA operative was revealed by someone in the White House.

If the U.S. were going to war with Iraq because of weapons of mass destruction, why would our government shoot itself in the foot outing Plame, whose field of expertise was weapons of mass destruction?

Gee, I thought liberals were the ones who hate America.

Barbara Shapiro

Huntington Beach

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Does Novak have executive privilege? He has publicly stated that someone from the White House leaked Plame’s identity to him. Special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald should be focusing on the Novak-White House connection.

Since Novak refuses to comment whether he has revealed his source to Fitzgerald, in White House parlance he’s fair game, just like Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper and Miller.

Ida MacMurray

La Habra