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A controversial journalist leaves `New York Times'

The New York Times and Judith Miller, a veteran reporter for the paper, reached an agreement on Wednesday that ended her 28-year career at the newspaper and capped more than two weeks of negotiations.

Miller went to jail this summer rather than reveal a confidential source in the CIA leak case.

But Miller's release from jail 85 days later, after she agreed to testify before a grand jury, and the persistent questions about her actions roiled long-simmering concerns about her in the newsroom and led to her departure.

`Grateful'

Bill Keller, the executive editor, announced the move to the staff in a memorandum on Wednesday, saying, "In her 28 years at the Times, Judy participated in some great prize-winning journalism."

Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of the Times, said in a statement: "We are grateful to Judy for her significant personal sacrifice to defend an important journalistic principle," adding, "I respect her decision to retire from the Times and wish her well."

`A free woman'

Miller, 57, said in an interview that she was "very satisfied" with the agreement and described herself as a "free woman," free from what she called the "convent of the New York Times, a convent with its own theology and its own catechism."

Lawyers for Miller, who is a member of the Newspaper Guild of New York, and the paper negotiated a severance package, the details of which both sides agreed not to disclose.

Under attack

Miller's reporting came under attack after articles suggested that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, coverage that helped the Bush administration build its case for invading Iraq but that turned out to be wrong.

Miller leaves the paper after serving for many years as an investigative and national security correspondent.

She has written four books and in 2002 was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism for reporting, before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, about the growing threat of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda.
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