The man who tried to sell me pictures of Site R -- home of the so-called shadow government and the place where Dick Cheney hides when the going gets rough ("Chasing Shadows," March 2002) -- pleaded guilty this week to a bribery charge.

Mr. Fantastic, whose real name is Maurice Threats, was facing 27 years in prison and $750,000 in fines for espionage and bribery charges. But on Monday, he pleaded to "soliciting a gratuity," which sounds like something waiters and coffee-shop workers could be charged with, but in reality could send Threats away for as long as 15 years.

But because Threats had, until now, a spotless record, chances are very good that he will walk away with probation.

Back in March, numerous high-ranking FBI officials were pleading with me to string Mr. Fantastic along. A White House deputy chief of staff was on the phone, strongly urging that we not run a story about Site R. A day later, the U.S. Attorney's office called, asking us to hold the story.

So the time comes to punish Mr. Fantastic -- who was essentially a traitor willing to sell pictures of a supposedly secret government facility because he was short on money -- and what happens?

The first time I met Maurice Threats, he was the nicest of the group of MPs and law enforcement officials who detained me and photographer Christina M. Felice when we stumbled onto Site R.

And, of everyone there, he was the last guy I suspected when we received an e-mail from someone calling himself Mr. Fantastic, offering to sell us pictures or smuggle a camera into what locals call "Harry's Hole."

When I met him for the second time, in a federal courtroom in Harrisburg last month for his arraignment, Threats seemed like a big, naive kid. I was beginning to wonder if he even was Mr. Fantastic.

But Tuesday, I found out incontrovertibly that Threats was Mr. Fantastic. He admitted as much to the FBI, according to his federal public defender Thomas Thornton.

But there is so much more to know about this case. At a time when wiretaps will be approved as a matter of routine and when television network executives are giving advice to presidents, it is more important than ever to ask questions. Thornton said that he was told the FBI claimed to be working for a newspaper when they stung Threats. Which newspaper? Did they claim to be reporters?

I didn't want to be an FBI spy because when reporters are mistaken for spies, the truth is a casualty and sometimes, so are reporters.

A trial might have answered some questions. The videotape the FBI made while stinging Threats might have surfaced. But nobody in justice wants to see its agents playing "His Fed Friday" on the evening news.

I wish I could answer that. Calls to Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis Pfannenschmidt went unanswered.

Once an honored soldier who served as an aide to a general in Korea and who'd been given the important assignment of guarding Harry's Hole, Threats is now a pariah. In the Army and in his hometown of Cascade, Md.

"Someone threw a brick through his window yesterday," says Threats' lawyer, Thornton. "He's having difficulty with people in the neighborhood saying things to his children, like ŒDo you know what your father did?'"

Family members, says Thornton, have come to town to protect Threats, his wife and the two children, who are 5 and 7.

"They walk his wife to the grocery store so people don't harass her," Thornton says.

But while his loved ones gather around him, they are deeply saddened. Especially his father, Maurice Sr., who served 10 years in the military, including a stint as an MP.

"He supports his son, but he is disappointed," says Thornton. "Threats knew from the very instant when the FBI first started questioning him what a stupid mistake he made. Especially coming from a military family."

With cascading threats, Threats is going to move out of Cascade as soon as possible, Thornton says. When that happens depends on a judge, who will sentence Threats in about three months.

"He will not be separated from the military until after sentencing," Thornton says. "If he could get out now, he would leave."

Once that happens, Thornton says he does not know how Threats will feed his family.

Too bad for Threats that he wasn't more curious about that when he tried to make a quick score.