Reply #59: Judith Miller: The 'Classified' Angle [View All]

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A new area receiving a good deal of attention in the wake of the New York Times¿ probe: Judy Miller¿s claim of receiving special security clearance from the military during her time as an "embed" in Iraq. Its newly relevant, with the federal prosecutor expressing strong interest in whether 'Scooter' Libby may have revealed classified information in one of his meetings with Miller.

By William E. Jackson, Jr.

(October 15, 2005) -- One of the most damning admissions in Sunday’s New York Times article on Judith Miller’s role in the Plame scandal today is Executive Editor Bill Keller’s statement that even after he grounded her in mid-summer 2003 from covering issues related to WMDs or Iraq, she kept sneaking her way (somehow beyond his control) into her old beat.

On Sept. 23, 2003, William E. Jackson, Jr., wrote one of several prescient columns that have appeared under his byline on the Miller/Plame case in the past few years. It details how she, indeed, continued to operate in the supposedly forbidden fields after Keller’s alleged order to cease-and-desist.

But it also explores an area receiving a good deal of attention in the wake of the Times’ Sunday study: Miller’s claim of receiving special security clearance from the military during her time as an "embed" and weapons-hunter in Iraq. Its newly relevant now, with federal prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald expressing strong interest in whether I. Lewis Libby, aide to Vice President Cheney, may have revealed classified information in one of his meetings with Miller.

Here is a somewhat shorter version of that Sept. 23, 2003, column:

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A New York Times story on Sept. 16, "Senior U.S. Official to Level Weapons Charges Against Syria," was the most important to appear in the past two months under the sole byline of Judith Miller. But her latest story subjected her reporting to new criticism, as it appeared that she was, once again, the "drop" of choice for a politically-motivated leaker.

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