U.S. seeks to make reporter on CIA testify

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 25 (UPI) -- U.S. prosecutors are demanding a New York Times reporter testify at the trial of an ex-CIA operative accused of leaking classified information.

The subpoena issued to James Risen by federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia Monday follows a similar order to speak to a grand jury that a judge quashed last year.

"I will always protect my sources," Risen told The Washington Post. "This is a fight about the First Amendment and the freedom of the press."

The trial of Jeffrey Sterling, scheduled for September, is one of five cases brought so far in an aggressive crackdown by the Obama administration on the release of government secrets.

Risen's 2006 book "State of War" described a CIA plot to sabotage Iran's nuclear program by sending a Russian agent to offer the Iranians flawed arms plans. But the scheme risked actually helping Iran because the errors were too obvious, the book said.

The subpoena states Risen "can authenticate his book and lay the necessary foundation" to admit statements from it into the trial.

"The subpoena … threatens to turn the administration's fight against leaks into a broader assault on the press," said Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists.