I don’t know what to make of the latest revelations in the Judith Miller soap opera at the NYT other than the obvious – Who would want to work at that place? As for whether anyone is guilty of a crime here, so far I would say boredom ranks highest among the possibilities, second only to the obscene amount spent on lawyers by the newspaper, the government and the various and sundry witnesses. I’d be ready to give up on the whole thing but one mystery still intrigues me: How did “Scooter” Libby get his nickname? [But what about its implications for a free press?-ed. Good question. What about them?]
UPDATE: More of the Night of the Long Knives.
Roger, I believe “Scooter” is a prep school nickname, like “Muffy”, “Biff”, “Boo”, and so on. At least that’s what I’ve heard (not personally being a preppy).
Off topic, but everyone should go over to LGF and look at the letter from Iraqi reader Haider Ajina.
Don’t close your Roger Simon window, though…
This is pretty ridiculous. Judy Miller spent two months in jail not because she was protecting a source, but because she’s an idiot. Libby gave her permission to reveal him as her source a year ago, and several times since then.
A little background here:
Miller and Patrick Fitzgerald tangled before, when due to leaks in Fitz’s staff, Miller found out about a subpoena for Islamic Charities financial records (they were accused of money laundering for various terror groups including Hamas and LeT, a nasty Pakistani group allied with Al Qaeda and involved in the Lodi CA terror cell, allegedly). Miller called up Islamic Charities and tipped them off about the subpoena by asking for their reaction, giving them a day to destroy documents.
So there was bad blood between them from the start. This conduct smacks of Mike Wallace’s “I’m not an American but a Journalist” stuff. Not responsible but standard operating procedure for modern journalists.
As soon as Fitz agreed NOT to ask about other sources of Miller, she testified about what she knew. She’d had a letter from Libby for over a year releasing her. Most likely Miller’s WMD and OTHER reporting relied heavily on leaks from CIA, and various other agencies (State, DIA, etc). That WMD reporting was wrong isn’t surprising since absent the ability of Superman to fly over Iraq directly and use X-Ray vision to verify, Miller like every other journalist had to rely on the info passed by various intelligence agencies world-wide who unanimously thought Saddam’s WMD program was well along (disagreement was about what to do with it).
THAT is why she stood in jail, to protect her OTHER sources who have given her classified info on WMD and other things. Unfortunately, NYT is more than willing to sacrifice journalistic integrity (what tiny shreds are left of it anyway) to further it’s political agenda to “get Bush.” In the rush for Rove or Libby’s scalp the NYT and other media established that:
1. It is wrong for Admin or other Agencies to talk to the Press about any non-public matter and will result in criminal probes whenever politically convenient.
2. Any leak to the Press requires massive investigations to find the leakers and the Press MUST co-operate.
3. The Press must unite behind the agenda to “get” Republican Presidents over it’s larger journalistic agenda to find out news and accurately report it; ideology not news matters.
The net of all of this is that likely NO Admin official or future Republican officials are going to say ANYTHING to the Press. The Press complains that all they get is “no comment” but when the Press itself doesn’t report fairly and sacrifices it’s larger agenda for partisan politics it’s not surprising people react in accordance. Once the Press merely becomes an adjunct for one Party the other will simply stop talking to them.
there’s some fairly disciplined sleuthing going on
re: the Plame Game
at both MacsMind and AJ Strata (i’ll give the edge to Mac)…
http://macsmind.blogspot.com/
http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/category/uncategorized/plame-game/
i think the well is deep and very muddy,
but as Mac points out,this is more than simply a covert war over Plame’s outing,
and there’s a good chance Fitzgerald has been digging in places other than the WH and the columnist/pundits.
Corn et al consistently wish to ignore the findings of the SSCI
ie:Wilson’s trip to Niger was essentially useless and his report was deemed false ie Wilson,not Bush, lied.
Mac speculates the Italian source of the falsified yellow-cake letter may have originated at Langley.
and there’s also a good chance Plame was Miller’s source at the Agency…
rather a bigger deal regarding leaks than either “Scooter” Libby OR Karl Rove.
Miller’s “inside line”
to Plame at the CIA’s WMD desk
might explain both her rougue behavior in
the NYT newsroom
(BRIETBART,link above by Roger:
‘ She[Miller] was quoted as once telling a colleague, “I can do whatever I want.” ‘)
and Miller’s belated willingness to talk to Fitzgerald (after he reduced the scope of his questioning).
here’s Andy McCarthy’s take at NRO
as of Friday:
http://corner.nationalreview.com/05_10_09_corner-archive.asp#079607
What are the odds that Miller did this solely because she wanted attention?
And what are the odds that this thing will finally be closed down with no indictments at all?
I’d really like to see some oddsmaker calculations on that…
Checking different blogs about this there is no shortage of theories as to what is going to happen.
Some say that Fitzgerald’s real targets might be rogues CIA and not the White House at all. Who knows? I think it is possible that Miller may not know where she first heard of Palme’s identity. It was [after all] not a big bad secret.
I do know that Wilson is a blowhard and a self promoter. If his wife had not involved herself in all this by sending Joe to Africa to drink sweet mint tea none of us would have to think about this nonsense.
Jim Rockford -
Do you have some links to support your story? I strongly suspect that you’re right, but I’d like to read more, and links are always helpful when I’m arguing with lefties.
I thought conservatives believed in following the letter of the law. If so, Plame’s alleged “pencil pushing” at Langley is utterly irrelevent to the question of whether it was illegal to reveal her identity, and consequently the identities of other operatives, some STILL COVERT, working at the fake front company that was exposed at the same time.
from Wilkepedia:
In order for one to be protected by the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, it must be proven that the U.S. government “is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent?s intelligence relationship to the United States.” Republicans have argued, in their talking points on the issue, that if Plame worked at CIA’s headquarters it could show that the CIA was not taking the required “affirmative measures.” Former CIA officer Larry C. Johnson has strongly disagreed, pointing out that Plame worked for a CIA front corporation created and maintained taxpayer’s expense, which would constitute an affirmative measure to conceal her covert employment. Johnson and ten other former CIA and DIA officers and analysts wrote a letter disputing the Republican’s argument, saying:
“These comments reveal an astonishing ignorance of the intelligence community and the role of cover. The fact is that there are thousands of U.S. intelligence officers who ‘work at a desk’ in the Washington, D.C. area every day who are undercover. Some have official cover, and some have non-official cover. Both classes of cover must and should be protected.”
Ms. Myers is a journalist at the most important “MSM” outlet in the world, who played a key role in disseminating false information about WMD’s, and who spent 85 days in jail because she was afraid her testimony, would be damaging to Scooter Libby, even after he gave her permission to talk. Now, she’s apparently still trying to take a bullet for Libby, by claiming after all this to think in jail, that she just “can’t remember” who told her about “Valerie Flame”? This does not pass the laugh test.
With enemies like Judith Miller in the “MSM”, what Administration official involved in the WMD ruse and now seeking to cover his tracks needs friends?
markus:
I don’t consider Wikipedia to be a great source but I have to say that I think the NYT is responsible for making this mess and if Joe Wilson does not go to jail then by God no one should.
not that it will do much for you markus,
but here’s Cliff May’s view of
“Plame’s alleged “pencil pushing” at Langley is utterly irrelevent to the question of whether it was illegal to reveal her identity, and consequently the identities of other operatives, some STILL COVERT, working at the fake front company that was exposed at the same time.”
-markus
“If that is the case, it would tend to confirm what Bob Novak has maintained all along: That while he was told that Plame worked for the CIA, he was not told she worked undercover. As I
May’s quote avobe is from today’s NRO Corner blog.
the article he references is here:
Who Exposed Secret Agent Plame?
How about the least likely suspect?
-Clifford D. May
NRO – July 15, 2005, 8:27 a.m.
http://www.nationalreview.com/may/may200507150827.asp
I would like to know what Plame was doing sending her husband to Africa in the first damn place.
Wasn’t there some real honest to God analyst that could do that job?
She sent him and he came back and started shooting his mouth off to reporters [anonymously of course] and then wrote an oped for the NYT.
That is not exactly keeping a low profile.
The Senate Intelligence Committee spent considerable time and energy ascertaining that the man was a liar.
He lied about the forgeries he had never seen, he lied about who sent him to Africa, he told two different stories about what he found there and never even bothered to do a written report on it.
He tried to sell and book and plastered himself to John Kerry until the Senate blew his cover and Kerry dropped him…. and now he is the victim?
Exactly how does that work?
Should the administration have said, we still believe the Brits on this so just ignore that little birdy who was sent to Africa by another little birdy to do a secret report that stayed secret about five minutes about something we can’t give you the details on….
please.
I bet there will be indictments and this will go on for a long time and the end result will or should be “Don’t talk to reporters..Run screaming when you see them coming”.
markus:
One more thing, when it comes to “ruse” you really shoud say the Clinton/Bush policy.
No matter who had won that election the belief in DC and London was that Saddam had weapons.
I know it is convenient for Democrats to ignore their own part in this, but revising history will not change it. Most of the intelligence Bush used was gathered during the Clinton years and was endorsed by his administration.
BTW, Saddam still had the programs. Which means his regime was about 16 months away from stockpiles if left to his own devices. Resolution 1441 plainly stated those programs were to be dismantled.
But what the hell, the UN was on Saddam’s payroll anyway wasn’t it?
Something else people choose to ignore.
And I don’t doubt the Brits were right on this information about Africa. Saddam liked messing with people.
I would like to know what Plame was doing sending her husband to Africa in the first damn place.
Wasn’t there some real honest to God analyst that could do that job?
-terrye
terrye -
macs mind goes over the same ground:
there were other US gov’t people in Niger/Europe
to do the needed investigation work,and though Fulford seems to have come to the same Inconclusive-Conclusion as Wilson…note the additional info:
_____________________________________
The Mysterious General Fulford Mission
Friday, October 14, 2005
macsmind.blogspot.com
http://macsmind.blogspot.com/2005/10/mysterious-general-fulford-mission.html
speaking of Saddam’s influence
on the UN(and “some” of its member states),
supposedly over-seeing his
weapons/oil for food/kickbacks program…
note these paragraphs,especially mac’s last line:
__________________________________________
macsmind:
-
Now, here is an account
from the Washington Post,dated July 15th, 2003.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A56336-2003Jul14¬Found=true
“Fulford was asked by the U.S. ambassador to Niger, BarbroOwens-Kirkpatrick, to join her at the meeting with Niger’s President Mamadou Tandja on Feb. 24, 2002.[apparently *after Wilson's trip...see below] “I was asked to impress upon the president the importance that the yellowcake in Niger be under control,” Fulford said. “I did that. He assured me. He said the mining operations were handled through a French consortium” and therefore out of the Niger government’s control. Owens-Kirkpatrick, reached by phone, declined to comment.
Fulford’s impressions, while not conclusive, were similar to those of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, who traveled to Niger for the CIA in February 2002 to interview Niger officials about the uranium claim and came away convinced it was not true.”
-end of WaPo quote
Now let’s look at this, altough it’s a few years old. General Fulford, flies into Niger (for a scheduled refueling), meets wiith Tandja, asked him to “keep that uranium under control”, get’s assured, jumps on his plane and leaves.
So the General took the word of a third world thug of a President who’s country was in financial dyer straits since he took office, which only has a few ways to make money and much of it is through uranium, and yet Tandja assures Fulford that he has contol of the uranium even though the French controlled the ball.
*even though the French controlled the ball.*
there’s a cozy arrangement.
Still my view with Scooter added to the list…
http://www.rogerlsimon.com/mt-archives/2005/07/did_rove_lose_h.php#c58731
…but the book/video will be better if the “part of me” part of the second comment in this exchange can’t be ruled out.
Lack of a report would explain the CIA’s present consternation even in the lack of a plot; it explains the White House’s belief that they’ve been double-crossed by the CIA; it explains how Wilson is such a madman, and the press is self-explantory, finally.
===================================================
Posted by: kim | October 16, 2005 at 01:07 PM
Kim:
“It explains the White House’s belief that they’ve been double-crossed by the CIA;”
There’s no doubt in my mind that that occurred. That at least a faction in the CIA was in open revolt against the White House. And they were leaking all kinds of information – including classified stuff – to the press. Part of me still holds to the idea that Wilson pulled a sting; he made his (false) accusations in an attempt to draw the W.H. out. They bit on it.
But that doesn’t exonerate Libby or Rove from violating the law. If Fitzgerald’s got the goods on them, charge them. And if they’re found guilty, string ‘em up.
This isn’t a nice tidy morality tale where one side is the child of light and the other the child of dark. Lots of hard ball politics being played.
Again, Rove and Libby should go if they broke the law.
SMG
Posted by: SteveMG | October 16, 2005 at 01:15 PM
http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2005/10/rove_on_the_bub.html
Terrye:
Hell will freeze over before the Democrats & leftists acknowledge any of that. They will never give up their “Bush Lied” mantra. Objective truth has no bearing whatsoever on their storyline.