Novak also hinted that he personally didn't rely on the Fifth Amendment -- which protects people from testifying against themselves -- in Fitzgerald's investigation. Fitzgerald is investigating who leaked CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to Novak and other reporters in an effort to discredit her husband, a critic of the Bush administration.

Novak made his remarks at the first of an occasional series of forums jointly sponsored by the Sun-Times and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Sun-Times political writer and Channel 5 reporter Carol Marin, who moderated the forum, immediately asked Novak what he could say about the Plame case.

Novak acknowledged the swirl of speculation regarding his actions in Fitzgerald's investigation of the leak, including whether he testified before a grand jury, revealed his source to Fitzgerald or made some sort of a plea bargain by fingering someone else so he could stay out of jail.

But he called the speculation "ridiculous," declining to reveal his actions.

"I'm not going to tell you because it's none of your damn business," he said.

To reveal more if probe ever ends

Still, he did say, "If I had gone before a grand jury and taken the Fifth Amendment, Mr. Fitzgerald would have that on the street in about two minutes."

Novak also claimed that investigators know who leaked the information, although he did not say how they know.

"The question is, does Mr. Fitzgerald know who the source was?" Novak asked. "Of course. He's known for years who the first source is. If he knows the source, why didn't he indict him? Because no crime was committed."

Novak said he doesn't believe his source violated laws forbidding the disclosure of a CIA agent's identity.

A spokesman for Fitzgerald declined to comment on Novak's remarks.

At an appearance in December, Novak said President Bush knows his source, too. On Wednesday, he called those remarks "indiscreet."

Novak said he would reveal more "in time, when this investigation, if it ever ends, ends."

On the midterm elections this November, Novak said it was "possible, not probable" that Democrats would retake control of the House of Representatives. But he said the Republicans and their leader are in trouble.

"The edge seems to be right now to the Democrats," Novak said. "...President Bush is not what I would call a skilled politician. He seems aloof, almost arrogant."

Despite the historically large gap between Republican and Democratic voters on whether they approve of the job Bush is doing or the war in Iraq, Lyn Ragsdale, head of UIC's political science department, agreed that "there is not going to be a huge seat swing in 2006."

The government has long protected details about the size and budget of its spy agencies, which include the CIA, National Security Agency, parts of the FBI and other lesser-known outfits, such as the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.

But some classified morsels have gotten out.

For instance, Mary Margaret Graham, Negroponte's top deputy for intelligence collection, goofed in a speech last fall and said the overall U.S. intelligence budget is $44 billion - a number that open-government advocates have sued unsuccessfully to get.

It's not clear how far Negroponte is willing to go to provide more information to the public. On Thursday, he condemned leaks of classified information, but he also said, "Public understanding is important."

Negroponte's comments came as part of a speech summing up his first year as the nation's inaugural spy chief. The position was created to get intelligence agencies to work together after the mistakes of Sept. 11, 2001, and Iraq.

Without delving into details, Negroponte said he has used his powers to fix a satellite program that was on the wrong track.

He rejected the idea that his job overseeing intelligence reform is too burdensome to allow him to be among President Bush's top advisers on national security and attend the daily White House briefing.

And Negroponte challenged those who say his office has become another bureaucratic layer on top of an old one. One of his deputies last week said Negroponte has requested more than 1,500 people for his office next year. "Intelligence reform has not been a theory-based experiment or an exercise in bureaucratic bloat," Negroponte said.

In a wide-ranging question-and-answer session, Negroponte touched on other hot intelligence issues:

_Negroponte said Osama bin Laden's ability to operate has been diminished since 2001 and "his style has been cramped." He added: "It would of course be desirable that he be captured or killed at the earliest opportunity. ... And we wish that this might have happened sooner."

_He reiterated the U.S. assessment that Iran is determined to acquire a nuclear weapon, but remains years away from having enough fissile material - perhaps into the next decade. "It's important that this issue be kept in perspective," Negroponte said.

_The former U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Negroponte called it "important and urgent" that Iraqis form a new government under the constitution approved last year. He said only when new senior officials take office will the government "be able to take on some of the serious challenges that are posed by the sectarian violence."

_Negroponte was asked if Russia shared wartime intelligence with Iraq in the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, as some recently released documents suggested. The State Department has asked Russia to investigate. "I don't believe it's been confirmed that the government in Moscow itself was witting to any of the activities that took place, although - perhaps - the Russian ambassador in Baghdad was involved in some of these activities," he said.

_He said he has made it one of his highest priorities to improve U.S. intelligence analysis. He noted that his office has hired an ombudsman who will test the quality of reports and receive complaints. "We can't afford to repeat the mistakes that led to the WMD fiasco with respect to Iraq," he said, referring to the overblown estimates of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. No WMD were found.

_Negroponte said he planned to improve information sharing within the government. A written question from an audience member who claimed to have worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency asked Negroponte how he'd handle a stamp marked "Military Eyes Only," meaning the material couldn't go to the CIA and elsewhere.

Negroponte replied: "Take away the stamp."

"Unlike the whistleblower who discloses a health, safety or welfare hazard affecting all, or the government employee who reveals mismanagement or worse by our public officials, (the Macintosh news sites) are doing nothing more than feeding the public's insatiable desire for information," Kleinberg wrote at the time.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is representing the Apple news site PowerPage.org, is hoping the appeals court will pull the plug on a subpoena that could yield details about who leaked information about a FireWire audio interface for GarageBand that has been codenamed "Asteroid." The subpoena is on hold during the appeal.

"The California Court of Appeals has a long history of protecting freedom of the press," Kurt Opsahl, an EFF staff attorney who is arguing the case, said on Wednesday. "We're hopeful they'll continue to do so."

In the lawsuit, filed in late 2004, Apple is not suing the Mac news sites directly, but instead has focused on still-unnamed "John Doe" defendants. The subpoena has been sent to Nfox.com, PowerPage's e-mail provider, which says it will comply if legally permitted.

Even though the AppleInsider site also published information about the Asteroid device, it operated its own e-mail service and would have been able to raise a stronger First Amendment claim if it had been sent a subpoena. (In a separate case, Apple directly sued another enthusiast site, Think Secret, alleging that it infringed on Apple's trade secret in soliciting inside information.)

The types of articles about Apple that Jason O'Grady, PowerPage.org's creator, posts every few days don't seem that different from those that many news organizations produce. They include reports on Apple's patent disputes, benchmarks of software performance, reviews of software and news about upcoming products that have not officially been announced.

Being the first to publish news about forthcoming products--as long as the information is accurate--is generally regarded by journalists as a coup. CNET News.com was the first to report, for instance, that Apple was switching from PowerPC processors to Intel chips last year.