Two Views of the Libby Leak Case

Hiatt pointed to a British intelligence report that he said lent credence to the claim that Iraq was seeking uranium and to the report of the bipartisan Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which was critical of Wilson. The committee concluded that "the report on the former ambassador's trip to Niger . . . did not change any analysts' assessments." For most analysts, the committee report said, the information in Wilson's report "lent more credibility" to original reports of an Iraq-Niger uranium deal, "but the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research analysts believed that the report supported their assessment that Niger was unlikely to be willing or able to sell uranium to Iraq."

Gellman and Linzer relied on later reports from commissions appointed by President Bush -- the Silberman-Robb WMD commission and the Iraq Survey Group -- and on their own reporting over three years from intelligence sources. Gellman said the commission and the ISG found no evidence that Iraq sought uranium abroad after 1991.

It would have been helpful if the editorial had put statements about Wilson in more context -- especially the controversy over his trip and what he said. It also could have used a sentence to say what is known in every newsroom: Leaks are good for journalism.

On the Gellman/Linzer story, it would have been good to quote more from the WMD commission's and Iraq Survey Group's reports and specifically their conclusions.

Both pieces demonstrate the high wall between editorial and news. While editorial writers read reporters' stories, Executive Editor Len Downie doesn't regularly read editorials (although he read this one) lest it make a mark on how he runs the news pages.

Some readers think it's a scandal when two parts of the newspaper appear to be in conflict with each other, but it's not that unusual that reporting -- particularly in news and editorial -- will depend on different sources. It happened again last week when an editorial and a story gave different estimates for how long it might take Iran to build a nuclear bomb.

Reporting about national security and intelligence gathering is always fraught with fraught; it is a subject I will write about again.

Deborah Howell can be reached at 202-334-7582 or atombudsman@washpost.com.