Real crime lurks in shadows of this steroids mess

May 14, 2006

It's time to play Who's the Criminal?

Candidate No. 1 has admitted he took an illegal substance. The circumstantial evidence he's guilty of much more is higher than the Golden Gate Bridge.

Candidate Nos. 2 and 3? They told Candidate No. 1's story.

You'd think even the O.J. jury could get this one right. But it appears Nos. 2 and 3 may go to jail long before No. 1.

I am referring to him only as No. 1 to avoid getting nailed by a subpoena-happy federal prosecutor. And you're undoubtedly sick of reading No. 1's name, anyway.

The names you should be concerned about are Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada. They are the San Francisco Chronicle reporters who wrote the book on No. 1's steroids fixation.

Among their many sources was leaked grand-jury testimony. Now another grand jury has subpoenaed them in hopes of finding out who provided the information.

The reporters say they'll go to jail before giving up their source, and nobody doubts they're serious. To say that would be a miscarriage of justice is obvious, but the legal system increasingly is working in mysterious ways.

Nobody is saying grand-jury testimony should not be protected. It's vital to keep most things secret if you want fairness, candid testimony and unimpeded investigations. The perpetual debate is: When does the public good outweigh that legal principle?

This case qualifies to me, but I'm biased. I don't like to see people who injected cattle hormones trotting around the bases as if nothing happened.

Just don't try arguing that point with the U.S. Department of Justice. It has been on a leak-sealing crusade the past couple of years, and not without reason. There is this war thing going on, you know.

Divulging state secrets has exploded into a huge debate unto itself. Former New York Times reporter Judith Miller spent 85 days in jail in the Valerie Plame Wilson/CIA-outing case. For more details, see any of a million left-wing blogs calling Miller a tool of the lying Bush Administration.

Then there's the investigation into who leaked information on the National Security Agency terrorist surveillance program and secret CIA prisons. A million right-wing blogs are all for exposing who gave up that information.

Good leaks, bad leaks. They're all in the politics of the beholder these days, but one thing every blogger can agree on is the cases involve national security.

Unless Osama bin Laden is calling Candidate No. 1 to ask him which fertility drug he recommends for increased testosterone production, there is no national-security risk here.

The absolutists don't care. If the Chronicle reporters get away with revealing grand-jury testimony, they say it endangers the entire judicial system.

That sounds good and noble in principle, but isn't society better off knowing the truth about steroids and sports?

Williams and Fainaru-Wada didn't just deal with No. 1. Their newspaper reporting and book Game of Shadows helped expose players, sprinters, coaches, trainers and suppliers.

It did not ruin the investigation, though the eventual sentences were pretty light. BALCO lab founder Victor Conte spent four months in jail and four months under house arrest. No. 1's trainer got three months in jail.

The big loser was baseball, which was exposed as the great enabler to steroids freaks. Williams and Fainaru-Wada helped force the sport to start cleaning up. It helped make steroids abuse an issue in a greater national health debate.

For this, Candidate Nos. 2 and 3 are criminal suspects? They could go to jail longer than the steroids ringleader, the supplier, not to mention Candidate No. 1.

Talk about a crime.