'Hidden Scandal' in Miller Story, Charges Former CBS Newsman

[MADem]

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001306732

There is one enormous journalism scandal hidden in Judith Miller's Oct. 16th first person article about the (perhaps lesser) CIA leak scandal. And that is Ms. Miller's revelation that she was granted a DoD security clearance while embedded with the WMD search team in Iraq in 2003.

This is as close as one can get to government licensing of journalists and the New York Times (if it knew) should never have allowed her to become so compromised. It is all the more puzzling that a reporter who as a matter of principle would sacrifice 85 days of her freedom to protect a source would so willingly agree to be officially muzzled and thereby deny potentially valuable information to the readers whose right to be informed she claims to value so highly.

One must assume that Ms. Miller was required to sign a standard and legally binding agreement that she would never divulge classified information to which she became privy, without risk of criminal prosecution. And she apparently plans to adhere to the letter of that self-censorship deal; witness her dilemma at being unable to share classified information with her editors.

In an era where the Bush Administration seeks to conceal mountains of government activity under various levels of security classification, why would any self-respecting news organization or individual journalist agree to become part of such a system? Readers would be right to question whether a reporter is operating under a security clearance and, by definition, withholding critical information. Does a newspaper not have the obligation to disclose to its readers when a reporter is not only embedded with a military unit but also officially proscribed in what she may report without running afoul of espionage laws? Was that ever done in Ms. Miller's articles from Iraq?
... more at link.

This IS getting interesting!!!!!

[cap]

1. worse than that...

you cant get a security clearance without being on a government contract. There also must be a need to know.

However Miller got the clearance, it was illegal.

The question is: who granted her a clearance and what sort of clearance was it?

[MADem]

3. I think this is a smoking gun, but no one is quite noticing it yet nt

[GreenArrow]

4. "However Miller got the clearance, it was illegal. "

What if Miller was/is on a government contract?

[ewagner]

7. I'm hoping that Fitz

is taking a long, hard look at her bank account.

[Mika]

9. Didn't Armstrong Williams get a gov contract? n/t

[hootinholler]

52. Hush little baby don't say a word...

Daddy's gonna buy you a mocking bird.

-Hoot

[Catrina]

28. Rumsfeld

According to what I have read. He signed her security clearance and I recall a WAPO article in which it was reported that she became very authoritarian with the military unit when they refused to follow her orders and threatened to report them to Rumsfeld.

Why would Rumsfeld want Judy Miller to be there when the WMDs were found? And why would he be so certain that they would be found? As it turned out, they were disappointed.

The question is, was the information they got from Chalabi's ex-pats, as usual, just a lie, or were they certain they would find evidence because it was supposed to be planted and that unit, and Judy, were designated to find them?

Did Valerie Plame's organization foil such a plot, if it existed?

And did Judy know anything about such a plot, if it existed, or was she just told they would be found?

I don't remember when Judith Miller was in Iraq, but I think it might have been in May of 2003. I'll have to check on that. This story gets more and more interesting with all its twists and turns.

Judy is connected to so much of it, including to Dr. Kelly, the British bio-chemist who died under suspicious circumstances, about four days after Joe Wilson's article was revealed.

[daleo]

38. I believe Kelly's final email was to her as well.

She seems to attract cryptic emails..."the poplars turn in clusters".

[MADem]

"The elephant is in the noose!" n/t

[MADem]

42. The mouse is excessively jumpy--dupe, sorry!

[NYC]

60. Judith Miller in Iraq.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A28385-2003Jun24?language=printer

...Judith Miller played a highly unusual role...prompting criticism that the unit was turned into what one official called a "rogue operation."

More than a half-dozen military officers said that Miller acted as a middleman between the Army unit with which she was embedded and Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi, on one occasion accompanying Army officers to Chalabi's headquarters, where they took custody of Saddam Hussein's son-in-law. She also sat in on the initial debriefing of the son-in-law, these sources say.

Since interrogating Iraqis was not the mission of the unit, these officials said, it became a "Judith Miller team," in the words of one officer close to the situation.

In April, Miller wrote a letter objecting to an Army commander's order to withdraw the unit, Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha, from the field. She said this would be a "waste" of time and suggested that she would write about it unfavorably in the Times. After Miller took up the matter with a two-star general, the pullback order was dropped.

...the officer said of Miller, "this woman came in with a plan. She was leading them. . . . She ended up almost hijacking the mission."

Said a senior staff officer of the 75th Exploitation Task Force, of which MET Alpha is a part: "It's impossible to exaggerate the impact she had on the mission of this unit, and not for the better." Three weapons specialists were reassigned as the unit changed its approach, according to officers with the task force.

Several military officers say Miller led MET Alpha members to Chalabi's compound in a former sporting club, where they wound up taking custody of Sultan, who was on the Pentagon's "deck of cards" of the 55 most wanted Iraqis. The April trip to Chalabi's headquarters took place "at Judy's direction," one officer said.

Chalabi said in a brief interview that he had not arranged the handoff with Miller in advance and that her presence that day was "a total coincidence. . . . She happened to be there." ...

...One military officer, who says that Miller sometimes "intimidated" Army soldiers by invoking Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld or Undersecretary Douglas Feith, was sharply critical of the note. "Essentially, she threatened them," the officer said, describing the threat as that "she would publish a negative story."

An Army officer, who regarded Miller's presence as "detrimental," said: "Judith was always issuing threats of either going to the New York Times or to the secretary of defense. There was nothing veiled about that threat," this person said, and MET Alpha "was allowed to bend the rules."

More at link.

[MADem]

65. She had to be operating under orders--HAD TO

I can only speak for myself, but even as a junior leader lo, those many years ago, I was not going to take any shit from "goddamn civilians." (Please, civilians, do not get overly sensitive, I grew up in a military household, and did not realize that the phrase "goddamn civilians" was a profanity until I was eight). At any rate, in a mission mode, you would be polite to the 4th Estate, but you made it clear that they had to stay the helll out of the way, and would brook no dissent on that score.

I know the new DOD embedding process required the military to do a little bending, but remember, they tossed friken Geraldo out on his ass for drawing lines in the sand. They may have been slightly less surly than I was in dealing with reporters in an operational environment, but I imagine things have not changed all that much since Clinton left office in that regard.

However, if you are in a situation where there is someone who appears to be one thing, like say, an inoffensive contractor, and in fact is another, "they" do let you know. You get the brief, and you are instructed to provide, quietly, certain types of support. However, for the most part, these folks who appear to be one thing, but in fact are another are REALLY professional, seemingly inoffensive, and low key, and they do not throw their weight around and act like an asshole.

Sounds like she was an amateur on the payroll. Stupid fool! And the idiot who sent her was even STUPIDER.

[MellowOne]

86. That was my first thought

How did she get clearance....can't wait unitl all the hidden crap comes to light.

[Roland99]

2. She's come down with Reaganitis (Can't recall who gave her Plame's name)

What a crock of shit.

[DrZeeLit]

10. I'm with Arianna -- if she "can't remember" then it obviously was

somebody other than Scooter, and Miller herself wrote "high-ranking" Bush admin official.

Soooooo? If highranking, and not Scooter, who else?

[Roland99]

16. Who else has visited her in jail? Bolton.

Either that or she's just flat-out lying.

[kostya]

78. Bolton was implicated months ago. (Re-)read this:

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/000797.html

[kenny blankenship]

31. If she can't remember and that really is what she told the GJ

she needs to go back to jail and think about it some more. How does she avoid a criminal charge here? Obstruction--criminal contempt--some lawyer would know which is pertinent.

[MADem]

32. Someone that damn forgetful should not have been issued a

security clearance, either!!!

[NIGHT TRIPPER]

48. it was PETER JENNINGS!!! PETER JENNINGS LEAKED IT---NOW GO HOME

and also it was Johnny Carson and Rodney Dangerfield--

[MADem]

66. Louis Nye, it was Louis NYE!!!!

RIP, Louis!

[peacetalksforall]

33. .... compounded by the GHWBUSHITIS.

[MADem]

36. Ah yes, the OUT OF THE LOOP virus! Most debilitating!! nt

[leveymg]

5. This isn't new. Read about her security clearance months ago.

Looks like Bill Lynch and the other mainstream media people are finally waking up and catching on to the scary implications of the Judithication of the New York Times.

[TacticalPeek]

15. From the link in the OP:

"E&P columnist William E. Jackson, Jr., had first raised this issue last year."

[MADem]

19. Clearance is one thing, the question is, WAS SHE ON THE PAYROLL?

I've been in situations where I had to get cleared for special projects work at higher levels than my day to day requirements. The clearance started on Day X and ended on Day Y. I was inbriefed on the way in, and outbriefed on the way out. The outbrief usually consisted of admonitions that if I talked about such and such, they would cut off a body part. You sign on the dotted line, and keep your mouth shut evermore!

If she was not in and out briefed, then she had some sort of blanket clearance. Why??? Did she pick up her check like that dickhead ARMSTRONG WILLIAMS???

Investigators at the Education Department have contacted the U.S. attorney's office regarding the Bush administration's hiring of commentator Armstrong Williams to promote its agenda.

The action was disclosed by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who has pressed for a criminal fraud investigation focused on questions about whether Williams actually performed the work cited in his monthly reports to the Education Department. http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-edu16.html

[dalloway]

29. EXCELLENT Catch here. Great analysis.

I'm glad to see this being discussed and hope it gets traction elsewhere as well.

[texpatriot2004]

34. Yes, what if she was on the payroll? Given their track record she

most likely was.

[librechik]

89. "blanket clearance"

interesting choice of words--

and don't we all secretly suspect that a blanket of some kind was involved in her unusual Iraq embed agreement?

harumph--embed is another one!

[oregonindy]

6. I think this needs to be amplified and broadcasted out big time!

[joanski0]

8. Was Judy embedded with the WMD search team

so she could be the first to report on the (planted) WMD's when they were found? Didn't the planted WMD's plan go awry? Isn't that why David Kelly was "suicided"?

" ... she was granted a DoD security clearance while embedded with the WMD search team in Iraq in 2003."

[Marnieworld]

26. ding ding ding

You got it!

[progressivebydesign]

11. I wondered that same thing. Is it normal to have a security clearance?

That seems really wrong. That woman is far too connected... wonder why.

[Nothing Without Hope]

17. I too think she was there to report on "found" WMDs planted by the DoD:

In this all too plausible scenario, the DoD had planted WMDs to be "found" in order to undermine critics of the Iraq War; Miller was sent to the area to preside over the event and get the scoop. For some reason - quite possibly because too many people found out about it - the WMD planting gambit failed. This incident would be likely directly related to the "suicide" of David Kelly - remember that his email to Judith Miller was the last before his suspicious death. Did he tell her of his suspicions, after which he was silenced for knowing too much?

Read this post by Peace Patriot and you'll see why I think this is probably true. It surely does tie some unexplained loose ends together and comprises what would indeed be an even bigger crime than the Plame leak. If only more whistle-blowers would step forward! But Kelly's death sent a clear message about the consequences.

See what you think:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5049555

[hang a left]

45. I have read PP's posts. It is a very workable theory. And running

with that theory for a minute...Could it be possible that Kelly sent that email to Judy hoping to leave some kind of clue so that his murder by "dark actors" could be discovered. I am sure he realized that his life was at risk, if in fact he knew, they knew, that he knew.

[Nothing Without Hope]

62. yes, that's possible. It's also possible that she told the "dark actors"

about his email and that he intended to reveal the WMD panting plot - and they silenced him.

[Peace Patriot]

88. The known facts seem to point more to his promise NOT to tell.

I don't think he intended to tell all he knew, just to alert the public to the fact that we had been lied to. In his last emails, he says he thinks it will all blow over in a week. He is looking forward to returning to Iraq, and to his daughter's wedding. And he says somewhere that he'd assured his bosses that he didn't reveal any "state secrets." It sounds very much like he felt he'd done his duty to the public, promised his bosses that was the end of it, and didn't expect further controversy or trouble. His whistleblowing was anonymous. They hunted him down within gov't (somebody outed him, it appears), interrogated him for days, threatened him with prosecution--just for saying the intel had been exaggerated (something that was not all that earth-shaking--a matter words, and emphasis). And he back-tracked (recanted some of it) and tried to protect himself. But their reaction to him was extraordinary. They had to have been worried about far more than "sexed up" intel.

I think he still trusted Miller, and who knows what he may have disclosed to her? She seems all sympathetic about his plight--the plight of a WMD expert who had just been whistleblowing about her pet project, Iraq WMDs, casting doubt upon the WMD justifications for the war. Was her sympathy genuine? (Is she thinking about him now?)

I think her NYT obit on Kelly is revealing in what it doesn't say--she fails to disclose her close connections to him--and also in what it does say. I think she puts words in his mouth, around paragraph 15-16, criticizing the U.S. troops for not looking hard enough for the WMDs in Iraq. She fails to put quotes around those remarks, and it doesn't fit his state of mind (that of a whistleblower). It does serve her interests, though, and reflects HER attitude toward the U.S. troops who were looking for WMDs. I think it's possible she made it up.

A friend of Kelly's (who has never been identified, that I know of), who he says he ran into at RUSI (Royal United Services Institute--which concerns military and security matters), warned him that his bosses suspected that he was the whistleblower. He then wrote a letter to his line manager, disclosing his contacts with the BBC. (He didn't seem to think he was under any security rules about it--he'd very often briefed the press on WMDs issue, as a UN inspector.) It seemed to catch him off guard, that they knew it was him. This was occurring the first week of July 2003.

How did they find out that he was the BBC whistleblower? Well, all I can say is that Judith Miller was involved in outing somebody else, for the same reason, during the same two-week period, and, if I was a prosecutor, I'd sure ask her some questions about it.

[Nothing Without Hope]

91. another absorbing, thoughtful, important post, Peace Patriot - I'm

bookmarking this one too. Thank you!

I was struck by the feel of the Kelly emails posted here by EuroObserver (reply #81). He surely does not sound like he expected to be dead before the next week. I've NEVER believed he suicided. I wonder how many people in England suspect murder.

Judith Miller is at the heart of so many things. I do wonder what Bolton was doing visiting her - my guess is that just his presence alone was a reminder of the consequences if she chose to tell all she knows. He wouldn't have to SAY anything incriminating. His reputation precedes him and Miller knows it well. There was a report - I don't know how well-founded - that Bolton was a regular source for Miller.

And I do believe Bolton is mixed up in this too. His former chief of staff had CIA access too, and as Seymour Hersh has pointed out, Bolton was a fiend for selective "intelligence" collection.

[eridani]

94. Still, what were they planning on doing about testing the "WMD"?

Ritter and others have pointed out that chem and bio weapons can be dated, and that planted material would never pass the test. Nuclear material would have similar problems, no? Facilities for actually making nuclear bombs are impossible to hide, and can't be quickly constructed.

Could they have been planning to get rid of the plants ASAP after finding them? Wouldn't the UN inspectors have raised holy hell about that? (Of course they managed to get rid of the WTC structural steel before it could be tested, so they might have been confident they could get by with it.)

[EuroObserver]

81. Here is a sample of Dr. David Kelly's last emails (note the plural).

Several were sent at the same time as a batch (guess he was using a dial-up connection at his home). There are more at the link below. The first, we know, is Dr. Kelly's last email to Judy. .pdf copies of the original printouts are on the Hutton site at the links given. Note that in his emails Dr. Kelly often placed two spaces instead of a fullstop or period.

http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/com/com_4_0076.pdf
From: David Kelly
Sent: 17 July 2003 11:18
To: {deleted}
Subject: you
I will wait until the end of the week before judging - many dark actors playing games.
Thanks for your support I appreciate your friendship at this time.
Best,
David

http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/com/com_4_0071.pdf
From : David Kelly
Sent: 17 July 2003 11:18
To: {deleted}
Subject : RE (no subject)
Many thanks for your thoughts It has been difficult Hopefully it will all blow over by the end of the week and I can travel to Baghdad and get on with the real work
Best wishes,
David

http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/com/com_4_0072.pdf
From: David Kelly
Sent: 17 July 2003 11:18
To : {deleted}
Subject:
Many thanks for your thoughts and prayers It has been a remarkably tough time .
Should all blow over by early next week then I will travel to Baghdad a week friday .
I have had to keep a low profile which meant leaving home for a week Back now.
With best wishes and thanks for your support
David

http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/com/com_4_0073.pdf
From : David Kelly
Sent: 17 Jul 2003 11 :18
To: {deleted}
Subject : RE I'm in town
Many thanks for the email {deleted} let me know that you had been trying to contact me but I have been keeping low on MOD" advice If all blows over by the beginning of next week I will get to Baghdad soon
Regards,
David

http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/com/com_4_0078.pdf
From: David Kelly
Sent: 17 July 2003 11.18
To : {deleted}
Subject: RE "Media" presentation
Quite a week If all blows over I will be in Baghdad next friday Hope to see you shortly after that
All the best,
David

...

The data from Dr. Kelly's computer (including more emails) we're allowed to see is archived at the official Hutton Inquiry site here: http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/evidence-lists/evidence-com.htm

[Nothing Without Hope]

92. Thank you for this; these comprise a piece I haven't had before. I've

NEVER believed he suicided, and these emails certainly don't sound like someone expected to be dead so soon and by his own hand. I am wondering how feelings about the Kelly case run in England.

Judith Miller is at the center of some terrible secrets. I think that's why Bolton visited her in jail - he wouldn't have to SAY anything, for his reputation says enough. Just his being there would be a warning not to reveal the darkest secrets.

[DBoon]

12. Who paid for the clearance?

My understanding is that for most contractors, the employer pays for the investigation requried for the clearance. I believe it is about $3,000 for a secret clearance.

Did the New York Times pay for the clearance? Did the DoD pay directly?

[readmylips]

53. Actually, 10K for Secret, 20K for Top Secret.....

My friend works for Boeing and that's the rate for Government Clearances. Confidential clearances are 3 to 5K. The Press gets Confidential clearances so that they can enter the White House and other government establishments. Why Judy Miller received Secret clearance is questionable unless she was employed by the Pentagon.

[DBoon]

57. So if the Pentagon paid $10k for her clearance...

doesn't this imply that she is no longer an objective news source? Since when does a reporter receive $10,000 gratuities from a government agency they are supposed to be reporting about?

And if the NYT paid it, doesn't it imply they are a government contractor and are thus subordinate to the agencies they should be reporting about?

[IChing]

13. " my instincts would have sent me running"

From the article.


I am a former White House and national security correspondent and have had plenty of access to classified information. When I divulged it, it was always with a common sense appraisal of the balance between any potential harm done and the public's right to know.

If I had doubts, I would run it by officers whose judgement I trusted. In my experience, defense and intelligence officials routinely share secrets with reporters in the full expectation they will be reported

. But if any official had ever offered me a security clearance, my instincts would have sent me running. I am gravely disappointed Ms. Miller did not do likewise.

[jrthin]

14. Just ONE question...

Why the eff is Judy not indicted yet?

[MADem]

23. Maybe she will end up as an UNINDICTED CO CONSPIRATOR

...and she is just getting the hell out of the way, playing the game, until she is called to point her fickle finger at Dickie, Libby et. al.

I'd downplay my role if at all possible, if I were her, especially if I were expecting to be called back by popular demand to do a little pigfucking on the stand....

[pacalo]

40. She can still be indicted, can't she?

She was only cleared for the contempt of court charges.

[MADem]

41. Yeah, sure, but she will sing louder and longer if there is a pony

under that pile of shit coming at her!

In exchange for cooperation, give her the UCC tag...it will ensure she never works for a respectable publication ever again, and accomplish the nailing of some guy who mumbles so much that VALERIE PLAME sounds like Valerie FLAME....


Say Judy, how'd ya like to look at these documents, all about a WMD type over at the agency by the name-a Valerie Flame???

[pacalo]

44. We'll see if she ever fully cooperates.

If she doesn't go to jail, I believe she'll become a sad figure among her peers. She's even more despicable than I had earlier thought.

[McKenzie]

18. that might just be illegal

I posted an article earlier today about the WH spin machine in the run up to the Iraq War. One interesting comment in it relates to the hasty taking down of a website set up for propaganda purposes.

Specifically, the author contends>>>

<snip>

The EmpowerPeace website didn't last long. The reason, Gardiner suspects, is that its creation probably violated the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, which bans the domestic dissemination of government propaganda.

</snip>

http://www.cooperativeindividualism.org/smith_gar_on_us_govt_falsehoods.html

Maybe a little legal opinion on the legality of embedding the journo, for what could well be political propaganda, in the context of the Smith-Mundt Act of 1948, wouldn't go amiss. I suppose the issue is whether witholding information can be regarded as "dissemination of domestic propaganda". Put another way, is the effect of what she did "lying by omission" and thus tantamount to propaganda?

[pdxblue]

20. Operation Mockingbird?

sounds to me like judy blue lies is proof positive "operation mockingbird" is alive and well...

[dbeach]

22. whada U say??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOCKINGBIRD
"Operation Mockingbird is a Central Intelligence Agency operation to influence domestic and foreign media discovered during the Church Committee investigation in 1975 (published 1976):

"The CIA currently maintains a network of several hundred foreign individuals around the world who provide intelligence for the CIA and at times attempt to influence opinion through the use of covert propaganda. These individuals provide the CIA with direct access to a large number of newspapers and periodicals, scores of press services and news agencies, radio and television stations, commercial book publishers, and other foreign media outlets."<1>.
It is important to know that the word Mockingbird was first used by Deborah Davis in Katharine the Great (1979). There is no evidence that the CIA called it this. In fact, when Cord Meyer joined the operation in 1951 he said it was so secret it did not have a name." <2>.

CHECK THE LYRICS is it code or what????


"Hush little baby, don’t say a word
Pappa’s gonna buy you a mockingbird

If that mockingbird don’t sing
Pappa’s gonna buy you a diamond ring

If that diamond ring turns brass
Pappa’s gonna buy you a lookin’ glass

If that lookin’ glass gets broke
Pappa’s gonna buy you billy goat

If that billy goat don’t pull
Pappa’s gonna buy you a cart and bull

If that cart and bull turns over
Pappa’s gonna buy you a doggie named rover

If that dog named rover don’t bark
Pappa’s gonna buy you a horse and cart

If that horse and cart fall down
You’ll still be the sweetest little baby in town
peter, paul & mary lyrics "

[cal04]

21. here's a story from the Washington Post:Embedded Reporter's role

this certainly doesn't sound like a reporter they're talking about
Embedded Reporter's Role In Army Unit's Actions Questioned by Military
Howard Kurtz

New York Times reporter Judith Miller played a highly unusual role in an Army unit assigned to search for dangerous Iraqi weapons, according to U.S. military officials, prompting criticism that the unit was turned into what one official called a "rogue operation." More than a half-dozen military officers said that Miller acted as a middleman between the Army unit with which she was embedded and Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi, on one occasion accompanying Army officers to Chalabi's headquarters, where they took custody of Saddam Hussein's son-in-law. She also sat in on the initial debriefing of the son-in-law, these sources say. Since interrogating Iraqis was not the mission of the unit, these officials said, it became a "Judith Miller team," in the words of one officer close to the situation.

The MET Alpha team was charged with examining potential Iraqi weapon sites in the war's aftermath. Military officers critical of the unit's conduct say its members were not trained in the art of human intelligence -- that is, eliciting information from prisoners and potential defectors. Specialists in such interrogations say the initial hours of questioning are crucial, and several Army and Pentagon officials were upset that MET Alpha officers were debriefing Hussein son-in-law Jamal Sultan Tikriti. "This was totally out of their lane, getting involved with human intelligence," said one military officer who, like several others interviewed, declined to be named because he is not an authorized spokesman. But, the officer said of Miller, "this woman came in with a plan. She was leading them. . . . She ended up almost hijacking the mission."

An Army officer, who regarded Miller's presence as "detrimental," said: "Judith was always issuing threats of either going to the New York Times or to the secretary of defense. There was nothing veiled about that threat," this person said, and MET Alpha "was allowed to bend the rules."

rest of the article
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A28385-2003Jun24¬Found=true

[slaveplanet]

43. Has anyone broached the subject

these sources say. Since interrogating Iraqis was not the mission of the unit, these officials said, it became a "Judith Miller team," in the words of one officer close to the situation.

"This was totally out of their lane, getting involved with human intelligence," said one military officer who, like several others interviewed, declined to be named because he is not an authorized spokesman. But, the officer said of Miller, "this woman came in with a plan. She was leading them. . . . She ended up almost hijacking the mission."

That sweet little Judy might just be LAP (Lohamah Psichlogit) mega Mossad (ha-Mossad le-Modiin ule-Tafkidim Meyuhadim)

[cyberpj]

83. THANKS FOR THIS ARTICLE - I never knew about it! She had power too.

And isn't this part interesting? ----

Miller's coverage of MET Alpha has drawn some critical press scrutiny for optimistic-sounding stories about the weapons hunt, generating headlines including "U.S. Analysts Link Iraq Labs to Germ Arms," "U.S. Experts Find Radioactive Material in Iraq" and "U.S.-Led Forces Occupy Baghdad Complex Filled With Chemical Agents." These potential discoveries did not bear fruit.

[Neil Lisst]

24. MADem, I think she's become persona non grata at NYT

and on her way out

[MADem]

30. She is on a leave of absence

Wonder if she took a cardboard box full of her photos and geegaws home with her?

I think after a reasonable period of time, probably during some terra alert, she will quietly resign, and the fact will be printed in the back pages of the paper....

[JoFerret]

47. She is history at NYT

and the swan-song was today.

[NashVegas]

25. More Fuel for My "Judy's a Spook" Theory

Mr. Fitzgerald also focused on the letter's closing lines. "Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning," Mr. Libby wrote. "They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them."

How did I interpret that? Mr. Fitzgerald asked.

In answer, I told the grand jury about my last encounter with Mr. Libby. It came in August 2003, shortly after I attended a conference on national security issues held in Aspen, Colo. After the conference, I traveled to Jackson Hole, Wyo. At a rodeo one afternoon, a man in jeans, a cowboy hat and sunglasses approached me. He asked me how the Aspen conference had gone. I had no idea who he was.

"Judy," he said. "It's Scooter Libby."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/16/national/16miller.html

[Peace Patriot]

50. I don't want to register at the NYT. (Damned if I want to give them even

a tiny stat with which to sell ads in that rag.) So, could someone tell me, is this all she said about "the aspens turning"?

I have my own theory about it, that he's going to be vacationing, as she had been, in jail (is taking the fall for Cheney), but it's okay for her to testify now, he has a deal of some kind, and further, the plot to plant WMDs in Iraq (foiled by the "good CIA"--the plot that I and others suspect may be behind Treasongate) has been "turned" (like the clusters of aspens, with roots connected) to other purposes, and he names them--the news stories that she should "come back to work--and life" to help them propagandize: Iranian nukes, biological threats and, as I recall, the Iraq "elections."

I imagined a "find" of nuke material or weapons crossing the Iran/Iraq border, with tracks back to Iraq: to trump up a new war and justify the old one in retrospect (now that they have the honest CIA WMD monitoring program out of the way, and a clear field).

In other words, the capability of planting evidence to indict Saddam , in retrospect, and to create additional murderous mischief in the world, has been reconstituted, and, boy, are you going to have fun with all this, when you get back in the saddle. (How could that happen, for a disgraced journalist like Miller? He seems to know. A retrospective "find" in Iraq? A new job they have lined up for her? What? How could she "come back to work--and life"?)

Anyway, her response to Fitzgerald, cited above, explains nothing. And I would be surprised if he was satisfied with it. It sure seems like code for a lot more than, "Hey, we met once in Colorado..."

[EuroObserver]

82. That's all she wrote

in this piece on the subject, PP. The article ends, just like that, on that note.

I have a copy I can email you, let me know.

--> "I imagined a "find" of nuke material or weapons..." In the article she also points out that her 'area of expertise' is chemical and biological weapons.

[Voltaire99]

27. Phony umbrage over "government licensing of journalists"

"This is as close as one can get to government licensing of journalists and the New York Times (if it knew) should never have allowed her to become so compromised."

It's hard not to laugh when establishment journos turn their fangs on Miller.

She's merely the most obvious shill in the stack.

The game is usually played thusly: Government (or corporate) source tells US journo what to say, and said flack says it. Such is the license, or leash, they all labor contentedly under. The very same rules governed Lynch's career at CBS, a network scarcely more dependable than FOX for realism and every bit as willing to play along grandly when told to do (witness, for instance, Rather's wet-his-pants performance when he broke news that the invasion would be called Shock & Awe; the old bastard was tremulous).

What separates Miller, the Lady Macbeth of her field, from others in this compromised game is her raw ambition. I'll never forget hearing her give a speech carried on public radio in the lead up to the war on Iraq. She ran through various Spielbergian dooomsday scenarios, and then, with lip smacking relish, declared that there were terrors out there that she couldn't even speak of.

This woman is directly responsible for the loss of thousands of lives; it's quite a distinction, and you might say, the apotheosis of a national establishment journalism that has spent decades cheering on and promoting the lies of one imperial presidency after another. There's no way such a business could not produce a Judith Miller, mutant queen of the myth-making trash heap.

[maryallen]

56. Well said.

[Nothing Without Hope]

35. ***Another thread on the same OP article (General Discussion Forum):***

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5076864

[RDANGELO]

37. Why I am troubled about this

Journalists becoming connected to intelligence,is a threat to our democracy. The people we are trusting to inform us about what the government is doing or trying to do, are becoming agents of the government. How many more are there out there.

[janx]

39. I suspect that Fitz has been wondering

the same thing. ;-)

[Finder]

70. It is not unusual...

and is not necessarily sinister. Read the following book if you have a chance.

The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters
By Frances Stonor Saunders. New York: The New Press, 2000. 509 pages.

Here is a review:

http://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/vol46no1/article08.html

[leesa]

46. Well, I still think the treason involved in outing an undercover agent and

compromising intelligence operations around the world in time of war is a tad worse, don't you?

They are trying to diminish BushCo's crimes.

[DemReadingDU]

49. I would think that there should be people

reading the various Internet sites and blogs who report back to Fitzgerald with all this info.

[Copperhead 2000]

51. What Did She Do While "In Prison"?

I bet she went to prison to make the Re-Pubes look innocent. When she got out she said she doesn't remember the person who told her who Plame was, and that Libby didn't tell her Plame's name. That means Rove lives to fight another day. Did someone get to her in prison? Remember Godfather II? I bet Cheney brought a family member with him to visit her in prison and told her not to testify or that family member would get whacked or something.

[janx]

54. She said a lot more than that.

And things don't look good for Libby.

She admitted that Libby was her source and that he told her Wilson's wife was CIA.

[IChing]

55. She herself is an agent

1. tipped off a Islamic foundation of an impending raid by the feds
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5077563&mesg_id=5077563
2. received a fake anthrax letter

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5077195
3. A US government security clearance
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1853828

4. promoted the lies of WMD in her reports
http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn08182003.html
5. an "ace" reporter that cannot remember the name or facts in the Plame case

[Carolab]

63. Remember that her husband purportedly took a cruise while she was jailed.

Think that had anything to do with it?

[Copperhead 2000]

96. Bloody Cruise

Yeah a cruise. What happened on that cruise where they found blood all over the deck. That story has disappeared.

[NVMojo]

58. what a great point! This is true! She did more than cross the line over

in to the dark side!

[hang a left]

59. Judith Miller: The 'Classified' Angle

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:

***

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.

snip>
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/columns/shoptalk_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001306779

[chat_noir]

68. William E. Jackson, Jr.'s October 14 opinion piece

William E. Jackson Jr.: The Satrapy* at West 43rd: One Armchair Critic's Disillusionment On The Eve of Full Disclosure

As one who has written for over two years about the WMD reporting of Judy Miller at The New York Times, and her related involvement in the case of Valerie Plame, writer's block has settled in as the adjectives have run out. After all, how could the spectacle have been worse in terms of journalistic standards, unless one compares it to the role of William Randolph Hearst in the Spanish-American War? What more is there to say about an open scandal (and deep wound) at the newspaper of record?

snip

The War and the Brouhaha over Plame

As it becomes clearer that Judith Miller went to jail to advance her own career and to protect her sources, the record will show that this representative of The Times was far too "embedded" with the Bush Admininstration. Moreover, it is not possible to separate the extent to which Miller's WMD reporting played a part in pushing the "neo-con" agenda in Iraq from the way in which her actions in the Plame affair have been protecting her neo-con sources. The Plame scandal is not a separate issue from her WMD reporting, but occurred as part of her WMD activism. Just whom has Miller been protecting?

To be more explicit, Miller's relationships with Cheney's chief-of-staff Scooter Libby, his subordinates John Hannah and Bill Luti, John Bolton at State, and Doug Feith at Defense (not to mention INC leader Ahmed Chalabi), and her unusual power in the newsroom--together these factors materially contributed to taking The Times out of the business of holding those in power accountable and turned it into a propaganda organ.

Her WMD reporting (and other war-related reporting by Michael Gordon and Pat Tyler) in 2002-2003 overwhelmingly supported the White House's buildup to and initial execution of the war on Iraq. In short, Miller was the "stovepipe" (a Sy Hersh phrase for unvetted intelligence) for disinformation from the Administration and Ahmed Chalabi about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction on to the front page of the Times in the run-up to the Iraq invasion, and just afterwards. Over a year later (May 2004) The Times published an editor's note, saying that some of its coverage was "not as rigorous as it should have been." No mention of Miller was permitted by editor Keller.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20051014/cm_huffpost/008889


*I had to look up the definition of satrapy: A nation, state, territory, or area controlled as if by a satrap

satrap: A subordinate bureaucrat or official

[lovuian]

61. She got DOD security clearance!!! Doesn't that mean she is

a government WORKER!!! Judith Miller is way up to her waiters in this stuff!!!

[info being]

64. No, it doesn't mean that...

for example, you can sell stuff to the military and get clearance. It means very little actually.

[MADem]

67. It does not have to mean that, but most reporters do not have a

one, beyond an ENTNAC (confidential) if you are going in and out of the Pentagon or the WH on a regular basis.

Sounds to me like she had a SECRET or more likely, TS, and that just does not compute.

[lala_rawraw]

69. Yep, my

jaw collapse on to my floor when I read about her security clearance, which IMHO is unheard of and presents a serious conflict of interest. I am really starting to question just who Judy Miller is to be given this kind of access. One thing is for sure, she has not sullied journalism because I do not believe her to be a journalist.

[Finder]

71. Not unheard of.

Unfortunately, working for the government can mean the bad part of gov or the good part of gov and it is hard to discern which. It is also relative.

Travel back to the 40s and 50s or even earlier and you will see very different ideologies and agendas between State Dept and Defense as well as Congress. That is the reason a Central intelligence agency was formed as a matter of fact.

The conundrums the press and the prosecutor are faced with is if Judy is an agent, outing her is just as illegal as outing Plame was. Also, the danger of giving credence to the Jewish conspiracy theorists vs prosecuting and reporting on what is turning out to be a considerable Jewish involvement in the current conspiracy case.

It is like reading a Clancy novel...

[lala_rawraw]

72. Clancy novel or not

This is highly irregular for a journalist to have this kind of clearance. You see, to have that kind of clearance, one must sign documents essentially silencing themselves. This goes against what a journalist is and does. It is one thing to get something on background or off the record, which can be done and is done without signing NDA and such. But signing an NDA would muzzle the journalist from writing about stories, even if the story did not come from the general area of what she was cleared to see. For example, if she was cleared in order to have access to Chalabi, then even writing about Chalabi as unrelated to what she interviewed him about would violate the NDA. In any case, it is also highly curious because clearance should for those in position to "need to know" and involved in certain activities. It is highly negligent to give a journalist high level clearance. Remember, this is a civilian.

So both from the journalistic perspective and from a national security perspective, this agreement is incredibly damning. Those who gave her clearance and Miller herself can and should be indicted for espionage, which is what this amounts to. And Miller should be put in front of a camera in order to once and for all confirm that she is not a journalist and her actions were not in any way representative of journalistic standards.

All of this makes me sick and the NYT is really highly responsible for the casualties of this war.

[Finder]

73. You are talking different types of clearances...

NDAs are fairly common especially when you are covering in areas the general public do not have access to. Even on campaign coverage you sometimes need to sign one to get close to a candidate. Security clearances have several levels.

[lala_rawraw]

74. Right, I am aware, but at each stage you are

Required to sign a different security clearance document and NDA. This is not typical clearance that she has.

[Finder]

75. Sort of like the difference between Jeff Gannon and...

Dan Rather.

[lala_rawraw]

80. I don't follow

[lovuian]

77. Judith Miller has been in the NY Times for 30 years she

goes back to Papa Bush is time!!! When he was very involved in CIA!!!

This shows that Poppy Bush was hiring young journalists very early in the new media era!!! She pops up at the most opportune time!!!

[lovuian]

76. Anthrax was DOD too!!! Judith Miller was a government agent

thats why she got DOD clearance!!! Amazing of all the journalists who have been killed Iraq... Judith is alive and well!!!

Judith was the set up person for the propoganda Machine!!!

One asks is the Press FREE or are we like Russia

the News Media is a Propoganda Machine

Chris Mathews Robert Novak Tim Russert are all prestigious news media and they all work for the DOD!!!

Thanks to Judith she exposed them all!!!

[MADem]

85. You know, Matthews could very well be an asset, and here is why

He was in the PEACE CORPS in Africa in the turbulent sixties. He might have been tapped way back when, for use as an "irregular." In the intervening years, he worked for Tip, and Ed Muskie, but once you are in the files, it is like a fucking roach motel--you check in, and you can't check out.

A while back, he got a yen to visit, of all places, VIET NAM. Came back with a nasty case of malaria and had to take some time off. Lost a shitload of weight, and turned even yellower than usual.

But in the event that this postulated scenario is true, he would not be a DOD asset, he would be a See Aye Eh! one...

[lovuian]

90. I agree Chris Mathews has been exposed!!! He's definitely

part of the machine!!! I find it very interesting Kucinich didn't want to be interviewed by that guy!!!

I think he probably was part of the Bush CIA Machine of Poppy Bush!!!

[BR_Parkway]

79. FOIA request?

[MADem]

84. I would imagine a slew of reporters have already done just that

However, even though they have centralized clearance procedures in the last few years, they will still have to go through the ISSUING AGENCY to get any information on the clearance and the basis for it. The issuing agency was DOD, at least for the WMD clearance...but who knows, maybe another Agency ALSO granted her one.

And let me tell you, those bastards are MASTERS at stonewalling FOIAs. They send off the letters every week or so, per the reporting requirements, that say "we are working on it" but they take their sweet ass time and run the clock out as long as they can when the news can be bad for them.

Also, it would not surprise me if Fitz wants to know about this clearance, too, and if the thing is EVIDENCE in an investigation, they can use that as an excuse for not providing the information.

The only hope is a pissed off wage slave in the Funny Farm or elsewhere with access to the files, a late night, and an uncontrolled copier...

[johnfunk]

87. Kneepads Judy was embedded... with WHIG and PNAC

Given Judy's sexual reputation, I can only wonder if her "good friends" Scooter Libby and John Bolton were "embedded" in her "undisclosed location."

[JoFerret]

93. With which general in Iraq

was Miller literally embedded?

I think it was General Sanchez.
Worth a little checking.

[SkyIsGrey]

95. From the article.

In an era where the Bush Administration seeks to conceal mountains of government activity under various levels of security classification, why would any self-respecting news organization or individual journalist agree to become part of such a system?

Because she is part of the system.