Well done Financial Times

For weeks we have been reading articles about the Plame investigation quoting sources close to the investigation or alternatively sources familiar with the investigation. Well today the Financial Times did not succeed in getting anyone on the record, but at least they gave their readers a good idea of who they were quoting:

CIA leak probe 'widening to include use of intelligence'

Evidence is building that the probe conducted by Patrick Fitzgerald, special prosecutor, has extended beyond the leaking of a covert CIA agent's name to include questioning about the administration's handling of pre-Iraq war intelligence.

According to the Democratic National Committee, a majority of the nine members of the White House Iraq Group have been questioned by Mr Fitzgerald.

Oh, so that is who has been hyping these stories. Who would have thought? I had assumed it was defense attorney’s trying to prepare public opinion and signaling to other possible defendants. I had not considered the possibility that the opposition party had been paying close attention to the proceedings and was giving reporters the benefit of their observations.

We got into to trouble by the use of anonymous sources. Let us abandon this pernicious practice.