"General Judith Miller" in Iraq (E&P 9/03)

[enough]

An old story, but interesting for the question of exactly what IS Judith Miller, a reporter or .....?

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1984429

This is a long and very interesting article in Editor and Publisher concerning the history of Miller's feeding WMD propaganda to the NYT in the run-up to the invasion, and then taking up the cry against Syria.

The author describes some of Miller's shenanigans while "reporting" in Iraq.

snip>

When I interviewed military officials and journalists located in Iraq regarding the conduct of Miller during the quest for WMD, they did not mince words: "Nobody could stand her." She had an "imperious manner." "She's lucky we didn't shoot her." "She wore a uniform." "She had an exclusive deal with the Pentagon" -- which undoubtedly caused resentment all around.

snip>

"General Judith Miller" -- as Shafer has dubbed her -- was accused by a half dozen officers of intimidating soldiers searching for WMD. An Army officer told Kurtz: "Judith was always issuing threats of either going to The New York Times or to the Secretary of Defense." Another charged: "She ended up almost hijacking the mission" of the Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha (META), which was charged with examining potential Iraqi weapon sites after the war.

Based on several negative comments by military personnel to me, it is unlikely that Miller will again be given such unique access to those in the hunt, or that they will even talk to her. An e-mail message to me from her PAO sergeant escort regarding a three-week trip with META in April stated: "She did not have a SECRET clearance." She was "high maintenance and came to the field badly prepared. The problem I had with her was that whenever other members of the press showed up, which they did as embeds from other units or as unilaterals, she would insist that I get rid of them and that the 75th's story was her story, exclusively. She didn't seem to have any idea that the Army needed as much coverage of the 75th's mission as possible and that excluding everyone else was detrimental to the credibility of what the 75th was trying to accomplish. Never mind that we didn't find a damn thing ... She could not understand why Michael Gordon, covering the war at ground force headquarters, could have his stuff read and cleared at any time of the day or night while she had to wait. She would talk about the 'news cycle' and how important it was, and threaten me or my boss with the wrath of the NYT or her buddies up at DoD."

Team leader Navy Cdr. David Beckett of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, in a brief phone conversation, sarcastically dismissed the idea of her "supposedly having some sort of clearance." However, Colonel McPhee, the overall task force commander, is known to have said that Miller was "cleared at the secret level." Regardless, it was generally believed and commonly said in the field that Miller was cleared for information classified "secret." Either she pulled off a hoax, or a very unusual clearance for a journalist was granted by some Pentagon authority.

snip>

[malaise]

1. So MSM had her masquerading as a

journalist because??? Does anyone actually know if she's really in prison?

[Alpharetta]

3. supposedly she's in the same prison as a 9/11 detainee

[Jara sang]

30. She is being detained at the Alexandria Public Safety Center.

It is a city jail not a prison. I drove by there last week, because I was curious and I was in the area. It's locked down tighter than a drum. It's right on I-495(Beltway) in Alexandria, Va.

[Laughing Mirror]

34. Yes. Playing cards with Moussaoui in her green jumpsuit

with the word PRISONER on the back.

She was supposed to have been sent to DC Jail, but her lawyer twisted arms to get his VIP client sent out to Alexandria to jail. Alexandria is what is called a "new generation" facility, dormitory style, upscale and all that. DC jail was too crowded and dangerous for shit don't stink, Judy Miller, our favorite war criminal propagandist and scribe.

The Virginia jail, near the Capital Beltway about a mile from Old Town Alexandria, is known for housing numerous high-profile inmates prosecuted at the nearby federal courthouse.

Through a special contract with the U.S. Marshals Service, the jail houses such federal inmates as Yamamoto's client, Zacarias Moussaoui, the first person convicted in the United States in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Other well-known guests have included convicted spy Robert Hanssen, who was bumped from his cell in early 2002 to smaller quarters to make way for Moussaoui; John Walker Lindh, the California man who was convicted of fighting for the Taliban; CIA spies Aldrich Ames and Harold James Nicholson; former United Way chief William Aramony; and political maverick Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr.

In 1997, the jail had three spy suspects at once -- Nicholson, Robert C. Kim and Earl E. Pitts. Housed near one another, the three men apparently became cordial and were sometimes seen playing cards together in a day room.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/06/AR2005070602090_pf.html

[Alpharetta]

2. She is the propaganda arm of the White House

unbelievable how ignorant the average American is of the tidy circle of liars who generated the Iraq invasion.

[girl gone mad]

12. Yes. It looks increasingly like she was working...

directly for the White House.

Another Jeff Gannon/Armstrong Williams, only she held a much more powerful position in the media, so her connections must have gone much deeper.

If a relatively unknown conservative commentator was worth a quarter of a million to them, I'm wondering what they paid her. Was she just after access, was she promised a future cushy job in the defense industry, or does she have some other, more personal stake in the matter?

[KittyWampus]

19. perhaps power hungry like the rest of the neo-cons

[TeeYiYi]

4. That IS interesting . . .

. . . I wonder who her contact at the Pentagon is. "Cleared at the secret level." "Her buddies up at DoD." ?????

Thanks for the post. It brings up plenty of questions.

TYY

[Celebration]

5. wow

This is great information-- SOME SORT OF CLEARANCE????

She sounds like a real piece of work. Sheesh.

[leftchick]

6. Very interesting to know rummy signed off on her embedding

~snip~

According to Pomeroy, as well as an editor at the Times, Miller had helped negotiate her own embedding agreement with the Pentagon—an agreement so sensitive that, according to one Times editor, Rumsfeld himself signed off on it. Although she never fully acknowledged the specific terms of that arrangement in her articles, they were as stringent as any conditions imposed on any reporter in Iraq. "Any articles going out had to be, well, censored," Pomeroy told me. "The mission contained some highly classified elements and people, what we dubbed the ‘Secret Squirrels,’ and their ‘sources and methods’ had to be protected and a war was about to start." Before she filed her copy, it would be censored by a colonel who often read the article in his sleeping bag, clutching a small flashlight between his teeth. (When reporters attended tactical meetings with battlefield commanders, they faced similar restrictions.)

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/004799.php

[enough]

9. "Rumsfeld himself signed off on it."

Maybe that's why she felt free to throw her weight around.

[Carni]

10. I mentioned this on another string/was she on the WH payroll?

Remember the "journalists" that were also on the bush payroll for different things? Could Miller have had a similar arrangement?
I am thinking "weapons expert" or some such crap-- that would negate any of her rights to protect her sources IMO

[leftchick]

23. she certainly didn't mind making an ass of herself...

<snip>

As Miller covered MET Alpha, it became increasingly clear that she had ceased to respect the boundaries between being an observer and a participant. And as an embedded reporter she went even further, several sources say. While traveling with MET Alpha, according to Pomeroy and one other witness, she wore a military uniform.

When Colonel Richard McPhee ordered MET Alpha to pull back from a search mission and regroup in the town of Talil, Miller disagreed vehemently with the decision—and let her opinions be loudly known. The Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz reprinted a note in which she told public-affairs officers that she would write negatively about his decision if McPhee didn’t back down. What’s more, Kurtz reported that Miller complained to her friend Major General David Petraeus. Even though McPhee’s unit fell outside the general’s line of command, Petraeus’s rank gave his recommendation serious heft. According to Kurtz, in an account that was later denied, "McPhee rescinded his withdrawal order after Petraeus advised him to do so."

Miller guarded her exclusive access with ferocity. When the Washington Post’s Barton Gellman overlapped in the unit for a day, Miller instructed its members that they couldn’t talk with him. According to Pomeroy, "She told people that she had clearance to be there and Bart didn’t." (One other witness confirms this account.)

[DoYouEverWonder]

24. How many lives did she put in danger

by her antics, running around Iraq playing dress up?

[Jara sang]

32. What the hell?

Civilians barking out orders to Colonels in combat? She herself may even be CIA or affiliated with the MOSSAD or some other intelligence organization. I don't know if this has been said her before, but I've been reading about Mrs. Miller and she is obviously a Neocon, everything she does and writes about is to benefit Israel.

[FormerRepublican]

7. Maybe the reason why...

...we haven't heard much about Cheney lately is because his mouthpiece is in jail?

Poor Dick, can't leak classified info to Judith anymore and get his name in the papers. :sarcasm:

[Peace Patriot]

8. I think this is very important--what she was doing in Iraq.

I'm also struck by a number of things about that summer, for instance, how important it was politically, for Bush and Blair, to find WMDs in Iraq, the coincidence of the dates of the Plame outing (7/14/03) and the death of Brit WMD expert Dr. David Kelly, three days later (7/17/03), and, with a little digging, finding Judith Miller in a rather curious position vis a vis the Kelly death. (Kelly was whistleblowing on Brit "sexed up" Iraq WMD intel, and was soon found dead, near his home, outdoors under a tree, apparently having slit one wrist and taken painkillers, and having slowly bled to death out in the rain all night.)

One of Kelly's last emails was to Judith Miller--the one in which he worried about "dark actors playing games." She also had used him as a major source for her book, "Germs." In her news article about Kelly's death, 7/21/03 (NYT), Miller fails to disclose these close connections to Kelly. (It was his family who later disclosed the "dark actors" email.)

Why would she be deceptive about her close connection to Kelly, at that particular time--and publish a news article about his death as if it were written by a neutral and objective reporter, who hadn't just heard from a friend about "dark actors playing games" shortly before his highly suspicious death?

[lumpy]

16. Good connect

The webs of deceit includes many actors.

[Javaman]

11. I'm not a reporter but I play one on TV.

[rumpel]

13. I have a feeling...she will have to tesitfy in a different forum...wow

[Stirk]

14. Her "buddies up the DoD", huh? That's interesting.

[Al-CIAda]

15. Another thread on Miller from DU-

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4043194

[lumpy]

17. Thanks-missed that thread/nt

[enough]

27. That is a fascinating thread. LOTS of information.

Too much to take in at once, but bookmarked for tomorrow.

[lumpy]

18. This deserves a kick

Everyone read and try to make sense of this, even if it is a convoluted study.

[Pepperbelly]

20. 'the document contains no data.' is what i get on the link. nt

[lumpy]

21. Having trouble with some sites

containing no data. Yep.

[Octafish]

22. Judy the Bat was one of the last people to write with Dr. David Kelly

First: Yours is a great article. Thanks, enough!

Second: Most of the government treats the press as the enemy. What the heck was she doing with a "Secret" clearance?

Third: This whole WMD as the rationale for war is blowing up on BushCo.

Couldn't happen to a nicer crime family. May the following help tie the three together:

Article5 September 2003

Kelly's connections

If David Kelly was the peace-lover described by some in the anti-war movement, what was he doing hanging around with the New York Times' Judith Miller?

by Brendan O'Neill

Since his suicide in July 2003, Ministry of Defence scientist David Kelly has been adopted by some in the media and anti-war lobby as a 'good man' who was keen to 'raise questions about the nature of the war in Iraq' (1).

Left-wing writer John Pilger claims the 'heroic' Kelly was 'the antithesis of those , who have shown themselves to be the agents of a dangerous, rampant foreign power' (2). If this is true, why does Kelly appear to have been a close acquaintance of Judith Miller of the New York Times - the most vitriolic pro-war journalist, whose shrill articles about Saddam and his WMD have recently become the subject of ridicule?

Shortly after Kelly's death, it emerged that his final email was to Miller. This is the one in which he referred to 'many dark actors playing games', words that Miller first quoted in an article for the NYT and which quickly spread around the world. The submission of Kelly's emails as evidence to the Hutton Inquiry this week reveals the rest of his message to Miller, in which he refers to her as 'Judy' and says 'Thanks for your support. I appreciate your friendship at this time' (3).

Hutton's evidence also shows that Kelly's email was in response to one sent by Miller, in which she asked Kelly how it went at the Foreign Affairs Committee where he gave evidence days before committing suicide. 'I heard from another member of your fan club that things went well for you', wrote Miller. 'Hope it's true, J.' (4)

Why was Miller a member of Kelly's 'fan club'? Miller is one of the most arch pro-war journalists; she has published numerous articles for the NYT over the past two years claiming that Saddam was developing chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. For some of these reports, Miller appears to have relied on highly dubious sources. In May 2003, it was revealed that one of her anonymous Iraqi sources, who she admits 'provided most of the frontpage exclusives on WMD' (5), was none other than Ahmad Chalabi - the Washington stooge who heads the CIA-backed Iraqi National Congress, and who has lived in the West for the past 45 years before returning to postwar Iraq in April 2003.

CONTINUED...

http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/00000006DF05.htm

[Zuni]

25. If I had been a military officer and she pulled that shit in my command

she would be thrown in the brig so fast her head would spin

[cap]

26. but journalists cant be given clearances...

only government employees or government contractors can hold clearances. Judith Miller worked for the NYT which is not a government contractor.
Even if she had a clearance for another job and left it for the NYT, that clearance would not be an active one. A clearance can be reactivated within 2 years if she returns to government work.

Judith Miller was lying... unless, she was a government contractor!

[stevedeshazer]

28. All who think Miller is some sort of 1st Amendment martyr should read this

[Alien8ed]

29. 400 Tons of...

Bullshit is what Judith Miller "discovered" in Iraq.

Her reporting was skewed, inaccurate and boomeranged neatly into two massive manure dumps, placed squarely in the DoD's and NYT's laps.

When the officer in charge said that she "was cleared at the Secret level," he intended to say that someone who held a Secret level clearance had told him that Judith Miller had been approved to work outside of the approved "pool" system.

Or, more simply phrased, the team's exec wanted to get rid of her because she was an interfering pain in the ass, so he asked how in hell what she was doing could possibly be proper, and was told, essentially, that he was stuck with her because nobody had discovered that she shouldn't be there - yet.

But, later, we ALL did.

[October]

31. That link didn't work for me. /eom

[enough]

33. Sorry that's not working for you.

Still works for me.

The story is called "Miller's Latest Tale Questioned,"(which is funny in iteself) from Editor and Publisher, Sept. 23, 2003. Maybe you could get there from E&P home page.

[realFedUp]

35. Judy's backstory is the story

bet the NY Times won't write it.