Times reporter released

WASHINGTON – Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter jailed since July 6 for refusing to identify a source, was released Thursday and said she will appear before a grand jury here today.

“It’s good to be free,” said Miller, whose incarceration sparked a national debate about the First Amendment and unnamed sources.

She was jailed by a federal judge when she refused to testify before a grand jury investigating whether Bush administration officials leaked the name of a CIA covert officer, Valerie Plame. The investigation, a political embarrassment to the Bush administration, could still result in criminal charges against government officials.

Miller’s surprise release came 10 days after she spoke by phone from jail with her source – I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff.

During that conversation, Libby reaffirmed that he had released Miller from a promise of confidentiality more than a year ago, according to Libby’s lawyer, Joseph Tate. Libby had signed a blanket waiver, but Miller had been concerned that it might have been coerced by senior Bush administration officials.

“She wanted to hear it directly from Mr. Libby,” Tate said. “And he assured her that it was voluntary.”

A 1982 federal law makes it a crime to disclose the name of American covert agents. Libby’s lawyer has said he did nothing wrong.

Plame’s husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, has said he believes his wife’s name was leaked as part of an effort to discredit his criticism of the administration’s buildup to the war in Iraq.

Columnist Robert Novak’s July 2003 column sparked the controversy by naming Plame as a CIA operative.