thomas waas

Washington investigative journalist Murray Waas, 37, has been around awhile. As a teenager, he began working for legendary muckraker Jack Anderson. And he's been ruffling official feathers since the Clinton Whitewater/Lewinsky imbroglio, when his stories on Salon.com took a prodigious swing at dismantling Kenneth Starr's investigation.

Yet Murray Waas has always managed to remain well under the public's radar – refusing to appear on television, toiling independently as a freelancer until recently joining the respected National Journal.

But Murray Waas' cover's been blown. With the publication in recent months of his news-breaking stories on the Bush administration's involvement in manipulating prewar intelligence on Iraq .

Murray Waas's exhaustive National Journal stories on special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's inquiry into the leak of Plame's name to reporters has been praised by media critics and White House watchers – Jay Rosen of "PressThink" called him the new Bob Woodward, and columnist Dan Froomkin of WashingtonPost.com chided large media organizations for not acknowledging and following up on his disclosures.