A yummy thought: Judith Miller could be sentenced next week

[Alpharetta]

Thursday (today) "the Supreme Court will decide whether or not to take up the case of Matt Cooper and Judith Miller, and then will make a decision on Monday. If they don't take up the case, those two journalists could face sentencing next week." LINK

Cool. Too bad Novak's not in that boat.

So by Monday we'll know.

This scandal is taking forever to percolate. The White House says they want to know which of their staffers betrayed the identity of a CIA agent who was helping track down WMD leads before the Iraq takeover. Not that anyone believes the White House is sincere in this.

I didn't see anything about it in my local paper (Atlanta Journal Constitution) today.

But it's nice to know it's still percolating. Democracy may be dead but at least the corpse is still twitching.

[Alpharetta]

1. I think the Supreme Court will continue the stall tactic

They'll decide to hear the case. That will prolong the whole scandal. They'll take about a year to mull it over.

Judith Miller's probably not worried at all. Considering her invaluable help pushing the Iraq WMD lies, the White House and Supreme Court probably will take care of her. Professional courtesy for liars.

[FreedomAngel82]

15. She probably has

a good connection to someone powerful at the White House. That's probably how she knew to out Plame. Plame was dangerous to the Bush administration cause of her profession.

[JackRiddler]

2. How can you be for this?

If Miller were getting her comeuppance for knowingly being one of the main channels for the outright lies that justified the IRaq invasion, okay.

But any journalist being jailed for not revealing sources? On information they didn't even publish? This is horrible, and it will be applied next to real investigators and leftists.

[Alpharetta]

3. I'm for this because at least SOMETHING is happening

The Plame scandal has laid dormant for too long, in my view.

Hey if Miller goes to jail, maybe more journalists will grow a spine.

[JackRiddler]

9. You've got to be kidding me...

Hey if Robert Parry gets run out of the mainstream, if Danny Casolaro gets shot, and if Bob Stevens gets anthraxed, maybe more journalists will... well, what did they do?!

Tell me you're kidding!

[IndianaGreen]

17. Judith Miller is a criminal of a different sort

Not because of the Plame case, but because of the articles she wrote for the NY Times spreading the falsehoods that Iraq had WMD. Miller should have disclosed that her sole source was Ahmed Chalabi. She helped sell Bush's war, and she bears responsibility for the thousands that died on her account.

As to why Novak is not in the same boat as Miller, that's easy! Novak talked!

[pgh_dem]

4. Sorry, I'm hoping for a Miller/Cooper frogwalk, too

They were party to anonymous sources committing a felony offense, in order to further the interests of the * admin.

I am (personally) unwilling to extend a journalist/source privilege to cases where the 'journalist' is merely a conduit for pro-administration (regardless of party) information. I only see such privilege as defensible when there is an overriding public interest that is served by the release of such information.

An analogy: Al Capone should've been arrested for murder, rather than for tax evasion...but that doesn't mean he wasn't guilty of tax evasion.

The entire Nixon administration should've gone to jail for life for the bombing of Cambodia and the overthrow of the Allende government, rather than for cover-up of a stupid burglary...but that doesn't mean the cover-up and the burglary weren't also illegal.

Likewise, Miller should have been arrested for her Chalabi/WMD crap, but her actions in being a willing recipient of this illegal leak (calculated to smear Amb Wilson and endanger his wife & her colleagues) have earned her some time in the klink.

[JackRiddler]

10. NO!

None of your points makes any sense, I'm sorry.

If they don't print, they're not party to the felony.

They were not conduits, in this case. They did not publish.

This is completely unrelated to Miller's Chalabi crap. Who says she was a "willing recipient"? SHE DIDN'T PUBLISH.

Why isn't at least Novak who's up for jail time?

Don't you see you're justifying the state coming after the free press?

Your schadenfreude about Miller's other crimes is irrelevant. Imagine if Al Capone had been brought up on charges for a crime in Russia he had nothing to do with. Would that have been right? And what does that have to do with Cooper?

[pgh_dem]

14. Ask Patrick Fitzgerald if it makes a diff whether they print or not

They are material witnesses in a felony violation of the (edit for specific: 1982 Intelligence Identities Protection Act). They know, and have publicly admitted they know, the identity of the perpetrator, whether they print it or not.

I'll betcha a donut that Bob Novak isn't up for jail time because he gave up the leaker without a whimper, as long as he didn't have to testify to it. And I'll betcha a backup donut that Novak wasn't lying when he said Plame's status as covert operative was 'an open secret', because (wrap on the tinfoil) Bolton uncovered that while NSA intercept snooping, and was blabbing it to anyone who'd listen over at the Legion of Doom HQ.

Miller has been in the stable of WMD whoring from the get-go... she could be counted to give 'deep background' press to pro-Bush policy sources, thus providing the plausible deniability they wanted to keep since they were lying out their asses. This Plame case is not at all separate from the DSM, the forged Niger docs being busted by El Baradai, Bolton trying to get El Baradai fired, manipulating the media, all that fun.

Miller is not in this as a member of the free press...she's in this as a White House asset.

Maybe Cooper just got swept up in this because he's a dumbshit. I'd count on him to roll first. He doesn't seem to have the same dirty investment, thus desperate need to stick it out, that Miller has.

[kodi]

18. i agree about the bolton tie-in. and now miller is writing about the UN?

bolton found out about plame from his CIA contacts, passed it on to the white house, and then they leaked it. any wonder why bush is so adamant about support for bolton?

[pgh_dem]

21. Don't think that's the right order of links, but agree generally

I think Bolton got Plame's name from his hobby of requesting NSA intercepts, not from CIA contacts. I think (and this is so tragically stupid to think, it could only be possible in the * admin) that the * admin got word about Wilson's NYT editorial when it was in the pipeline, then Bolton dug up any state/cia docs on Wilson to look for dirt.

I think Bolton found a report relating to the Niger allegations (remember Wilson never saw the forged docs) with Plame's name redacted from it (maybe it was just a character ref doc - like 'these people at CIA think Wilson is a good guy for the job'), and he requested the IDs of anyone named on the doc.

He got her name back, and the fact that she's married to Wilson, and thought 'GOLDMINE!' imagining some conflict of interest in her commendation...

and here's the goofy kicker...

I think either Bolton, or whoever he blabbed to, didn't notice or bother to find out that she was covert. Remember that Novak just said he was told by senior Bush officials that Plame was CIA...not that she was undercover.

Think about it: why on earth would the * admin, which was depending SO heavily on CIA to provide its cooked intel on the war, think that it would *discredit* Wilson to mention that his wife was CIA? If it was known that Plame was undercover, working specifically on non-proliferation of WMD (don't forget that was Bolton's job, too), if anything it would put a giant seal of approval on Wilson's efforts. The only way to see the discredit is if she's just some lowly analyst disgruntled with the * admin, putting her husband up for an assignment where she knows he'll scuttle the poor widdle Cheney office's hopes and dreams about the Niger uranium.

To me, this long and complicated hypothesis is supported by what it explains and ties together:

1) Bolton had access to CIA/State documents regarding WMD proliferation
2) Bolton has documented habit of requesting redacted names, apparently for purposes of intimidating analysts or digging up dirt on diplomatic rivals
3) Kicking Bolton up to UN Ambassador would go a long way toward turning off any investigation into his activities at State
4) Any rationale for 'outing' Plame is so implausible and counterproductive that I think the leaker didn't know she was covert
5) Explains why Fitzgerald is going after perjury charges, because the press leaker and Bolton are two separate people. Let's imagine the leaker admitted the leak, but lied under oath about how he knew Plame's ID. Therefore, have to set up the dominos toward the person who actually compromised her ID (wittingly or not)... Cooper or Miller flips on "Scooter" or whoever the press leak was, and that person is compelled (now that they're facing the perjury charge) to give up Bolton

Guess we'll never know, because I'll bet my final donut of the discussion that USSC will agree to hear the case and kick it back til the fall. Hope I'm disappointed.

[Alpharetta]

6. Jail time will stall her new project of bashing the U.N. for Bush

Getting tired of FoxNews' incessant drumbeat of allegations against Kofi Annan? I am. We need the U.N. to be stronger and stop the genocide in Sudan, but instead FoxNews and the White House want to weaken the U.N.

Judith Miller is banging the same drums against U.N. too, it appears. link.

Why are they bashing the U.N.? Because they fear international law and they don't want to be accountable for their war crimes.

[tsuki]

8. She has never admitted being told. NEVER. It is Bushco

intimidating journalists. And you want them to report what knowing that they can be railroaded into jail by a corrupt grand jury? This is total BS. Novak gets a pass, and the journalist who were not traitors go to jail.

[sendero]

24. Journalistic privilege ......

.... only extends so far. It does not cover the refusal to cooperate in the investigation of a TRAITOR.

[oasis]

5. She should read Susan McDougal's book while she's in stir. It's time

for Judith to pay the piper for playing the tune that sent our troops to Iraq.

[JackRiddler]

11. aaaaarrrrgh!!!

Miller is not being punished for her Iraq lies.

She is being punished for protecting a source - unprecedented.

Do you understand the difference? Do you realize that it's fatal?

[underseasurveyor]

12. I have to agree with you

Journalists protecting a source is protecting a source is protecting a source, period, and it's imperitive to uphold and adhere to that principle no matter what or who we're talking about.

[Senior citizen]

19. So you'd protect a source even if it cost thousands of lives?

Did you know there's an exception to privacy laws regarding therapists and priests, if the patient or person seeking forgiveness is about to kill somebody?

Why shouldn't there be an exception to protecting a source if it should happen to involve nuclear weapons or a war of aggression based on lies that cost thousands of lives?

King Solomon had a case like that, when two mothers were arguing about a child. In most property cases, when ownership could not be proven conclusively, the property was evenly divided, so that's what he offered to do: cut the child in half and give each one part of the corpse. The false mother agreed, but the true mother objected. Anyone who stands on principle without regard to extenuating circumstances, is much too rigid in their views to be a liberal, IMHO.

The pukes know the score. They stand on principle when it comes to protecting THEIR sources, but they shit on the same principle when we try to protect ours. We have a Supreme Court that gave us an unelected (p)resident and has now ruled that cities can seize private property and give it to corporations. Wake up and smell the fascism--seen any pictures of the caskets of fallen troops being returned from Iraq lately, or is that just a question of BFEE protecting your freedom of speech, your free press, and your journalistic rights?

And that's spelled, "imperative," just for the journalistic record.

[oasis]

16. Here's what I DO understand, she's gonna suffer and go through mental

anguish. Judith will have time to reflect on what an overall bad person she is. She won't have the pleasure of the conveniences that her ill gotten gains have provided.

Chances are, you won't see me picketing outside he jailhouse because of the "injustice" to journalists.

It couldn't happen to a nicer person.

[dogday]

7. Maybe Martha can give her some tips

[otohara]

13. Simply Delightful

too bad she isn't serving consecutive sentences for all the lying she did for evil administration.

[Senior citizen]

20. I agree, but this Supreme Court thinks the Constitution is just

a liberal blasphemy. If they believe that God's chosen (actually their chosen) President wants to protect somebody, they'll do everything in their power to ignore the Constitution, even if it means ignoring precedent, writing new law that contradicts everything they've said previously, etc. etc. That's how they operate.

Miller will never see a day in jail. Before that could happen we'd have to get rid of Diebold, institute free and fair elections, take back Congress and the White House, and impeach all the justices and judges whose bad behavior got us into this mess. I'm working on it, and everyone else I know is too, but the names Job, Hercules, and Sysiphus come to mind often.

[ngGale]

22. Novak was on TV today spouting away until...

my station broke away to some fire in Louisville, Ky. He seems untouched after being THE one who outed Valerie Plame. I want the Plame leak uncovered so bad, what they did there is no excuse for.

[KlatooBNikto]

23. How did you manage to use Yummy and Judith Miller in the same

sentence?