Judith Miller, Plame, & Iraq

[H2O Man]

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/columns/shoptalk_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000789899


Okrent Column Hits Judith Miller, After She Plays 'Hardball'
The Times' star reporter gave a scoop about her old friend Ahmad Chalabi to Chris Matthews a week ago, and it still hasn't shown up in her own paper. Now the Times' public editor has pressed Executive Editor Bill Keller for an explanation, but Keller replies that this "is not the time" for that.

By William E. Jackson Jr.

(February 06, 2005) -- Last Sunday, Judith Miller revealed, on Chris Matthews’ MSNBC program “Hardball,” that sources had informed her that U.S. officials were, once again, "reaching out" to her old friend, disgraced former Iraqi exile leader Ahmad Chalabi, even pushing for a major post-election cabinet post. It is clear, however, that the New York Times reporter committed a serious professional and public relations blunder in the "Hardball" interview. On Sunday, Daniel Okrent, the public editor at The Times, took Miller and the newspaper to the woodshed in his column, titled "Talking on the Air and Out of Turn."

Okrent wrote: "To anyone who has tried to follow the jagged contours of Ahmad Chalabi's connections to the Bush administration, Miller's statement was a shocker. This piece of news hadn't appeared in The Times that morning; it didn't appear in The Times the next morning. ... But if you watched 'Hardball' and saw Judith Miller identified as a reporter for The New York Times, you would have every reason to think she was speaking with the authority of the paper."

He continued: "Judging by their absence from the paper, one must conclude that either Miller's Chalabi revelations were wrong or unsubstantiated or that The Times is suppressing an important piece of news. If the first, the paper has suffered a blow to its credibility. ... If there's an act of suppression going on, the price is of course incalculable.

[trumad]

1. Oh but Dame Judy still works there

She must have picutures on Heller.

[H2O Man]

2. Fox News

just interviewed Ahmed Chalabi by telephone. The interview, which advocated for Chalabi's taking a major role in running the nation, ended on a strange note: Fox News Jerk Brian Kilmeade asked Chalabi if he could "pick up the phone and get Vice President Cheney" if he wanted to discuss Iraqi business. Chalabi did not give a straight answer.

So, though he has recently been disgraced, it seems quite clear that Chalabi remains the hero of the neocons and their media cheer leaders.

[cthrumatrix]

3. well....let's have her back on...let's get the truth -Tweety would hate it

[KharmaTrain]

9. The CIA Tried To Get Chalabi, Not The DOD

It's probably why Tennet was finally forced out and lapdog Goss was put in to "clean up the place".

It never amazes me how anytime something happens in Iraq, CNNservative's Leslie Wolfman has his buddy Chalabi on some cellphone in some secret location giving "his take" on the situation. I was amazed the day the CIA raided his compound in Baghdad...you'd think this guy would keep a low profile...nope, there he was saying he was "framed by the CIA" (codeword to his Neo-Con buddies) with his pal, Leslie.

The gameplan still appears to be to set up a kleptocracy there run by the Neo-Con pets like Chalabi, Alwai and other "refugees" (like some of the former royals who were kicked out of the country in 1958 & 63...many who haven't been back since).

Regarding Miller...how the Times continues to employer her without any investigation into her reporting and agenda is beyond me. This lady fits the profile we're seeing of a regime mole in that paper, just like they've done at many others (and we're just starting to learn about). She's in a valuable place, since her misinformation in the Times or using the Times name gives this impression that since the Times is "librul" this must be far more credible than if a regime mouthpiece said the same lie.

[NewJeffCT]

4. great

we're still pushing an Iranian spy to be in an important member in the Iraqi government. Sometimes I think they're trying to create an Islamic version of the Soviet Union...

[DemonFighterLives]

5. Chalabi is dubbys kind of guy

Working for 2 countries at the same time and a premier ripoff of Jordan. I'm sure w looks up to him.

[H2O Man]

6. One might suspect

that the Bush administration had an agenda that had little or nothing to do with democracy in Iraq. Of course, to be fair, the call for elections in Iraq was not the original excuse for the invasion. It is, however, as much of a lie as the WMD story was.

[Me.]

11. How Are They Going To Wangle Him Into A Top Spot

when their candidates came in a distant third? As for Miller, my sense, from the article about her appearance on Hardball, is that she may have gone a step too far and even the Times is having a difficult times backing her. When she said that on Hardball, Tweety jumped all over it and called her on it. He wanted to know how someone who had been so discredited could become premier, and especially as the elections hadn't even been held yet. She, just shook her head and gave that "I know but you can't" cat eating cream smile of hers.

[oasis]

7. And another story of intrigue slips past dumbed down America.

The BBC would be all over something like this.

[DemonFighterLives]

8. Judith Miller should be canned

It would be a wonderful first step for our fledgling media.

[H2O Man]

14. Judith Miller should be

jailed. Put her behind bars until she answers Fitzgerald's questions in front of the grand jury.

[peacetalksforall]

10. I need a primer on Chalabi. He cannot go near Jordan because of

the money he stole there. The U.S. Government DOD and the VP promote him. THe U.S. Government DOD and Cheney use Jordan (or Jordan allows themselves to be used) for the PNAC agenda. Chalabi gives or sells U.S. Government secrets to Iran. Now he will have a big role in Iraq. Do they want him to run Iran? Help! I can't see the logic in anything here? What a dark pit.

[H2O Man]

12. People would do well

to read chapter 21 of Col. L. Fletcher Prouty's book "JFK." It is entitles "Game Plan of the High Cabal." This chapter focuses on a foundation being laid in the early 1970s for the control of the earth's resources, specifically oil. The power elite that he writes of are not limited by national boundries, nor are they concerned with elections.

To quote just a brief section: "It was the spring of a memorable year, 1972. On February 7, President Nixon's secretary of commerce, Maurice Stans, opened a remarkable "White House Conference on the Industrial World Ahead, a Look at Business in 1990." This three-day meeting of this country's leading businessmen, scholars, and the like, concluded with the memorable and prophetic statement by Roy L. Ash, president of Litton Industries, and incidentally one of the original 'Whiz Kids' from Harvard with Bob McNamara:

'....state capitalism may well be a form for world business in the world ahead; that the western countries are trending toward a more unified and controlled economy, having a greater effect on all business; and the communist nation are moving more and more toward a free market system. The question posed (during this conference) on a number of divergent opinions arose, was whether 'East and West would meet some place toward the middle about 1990'.

That was an astinishing forecast before such an eminent group considering that it was made in 1972 and that it actually was 'about 1990' when the Soviet Union did weaken and the Cold War came to an end, much in the way he had visualized. These ideas have had a major impact on all of us. The predictions of this conference proved to be another long step on the way to a New World Order." (pages 337-8)

[H2O Man]

13. Long-term planning & legends

One of the things that is useful to keep in mind in examining how long-term plans are made and carried out is that people who are "operatives" -- meaning they serve in a specific role to help an agency reach an assigned goal -- often have "legends."

A "legend" is similar to a "cover." We know, for example, that Valerie Plame was a CI agent, who was involved in investigating the sale of WMD components. In order to do this secretly, she had a "cover" as a person employed in the energy field. Almost all of her family, friends, and neighbors (including her personal attorney) did not know that she was a CI employee.

James Jesus Angleton, a chief of counterintelligence for CI, wrote that, "In the field of intelligence, a legend is an operational plan for a cover, or a cover itself, depending on the mission."

Yuri Ivanovich Nosenko, from the KGB, has said, "A legend is a false biography." (Both quotes from E.J. Epstein's "Legend"; 1978; Ballantine Books)

If the people who were directing Mr. Gannon for the past three (or more) years wanted a cover that would distract attention from his activity, should he be discovered, might well have thought, "Let's make it kinky: the public can rarely see beyond sex."