The New York Times has finally offered a lengthy explanation of Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Judith Miller’s role in the Valerie Plame affair, the outing of a CIA agent that is now threatening the highest levels of the Bush administration.

Yet the full-page report, particularly Ms Miller’s own first-person account, leave several key questions unanswered: Chief among them, is who provided Ms Miller with Ms Plame’s name, the potential crime that is the heart of the matter?