The old saying "Be careful what you ask for" is proving once again sage advice. The New York Observer reports that the New York Times, subject of at least one federal leak investigation, is training its reporters to practice their art as if they were drug dealers, keeping no records, using disposal phones and generally leaving no trace of their contacts. They blame the new procedures on Patrick Fitzgerald: Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has taken his place among the spirits permanently haunting West 43rd Street. 'The basic goal,' New York Times reporter David Barstow said, 'is to make it more difficult for a future Fitzgerald to follow the breadcrumbs of phone records and notes and expense slips from reporter to source.'   Mr. Barstow, the Pulitzer— and Peabody—winning investigative reporter, was on the phone Sept. 12, shortly before The Times began this year's round of legal seminars for the staff.   The sessions, led by Times lawyers George Freeman and David...(Read Full Post)