david waas

Lone Ranger

After a quarter-century in the journalistic shadows, Murray Waas is getting his day in the sun.

The freelance investigative reporter has racked up a series of scoops. He's been cited by New York Times columnist Frank Rich and economist Paul Krugman. And New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen calls him the new Bob Woodward.

But Murray Waas doesn't toot his own horn much and only reluctantly granted an interview. "My theory is, avoid the limelight, do what's important and leave your mark. . . . If my journalism has had impact, it has been because I have spent more time in county courthouses than greenrooms," he says.

Murray Waas is currently attached to National Journal

Once a teenage legman for columnist Jack Anderson, Murray Waas is intense, speaks just above a whisper, and has a knack for prying information out of prosecutors, as he did during Kenneth Starr's probe of Bill Clinton. Waas was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1993, with Douglas Frantz of the Los Angeles Times, for reporting on clandestine U.S. efforts in Iraq. Says Frantz, now the paper's managing editor: "He's a dogged reporter with an amazing capacity to get sensitive documents."