More on Judith Miller from Arianna Huffington -- "The Judy File"

[understandinglife]

The Judy File

by Arianna Huffington

July 31, 2005

Ever since I started blogging about Judy Miller's role in Plamegate (and in the selling of the war in Iraq), I've been showered with tips and tidbits about the jailed reporter, whom one e-mailer from Sag Harbor ("her summer hometown") archly referred to as "the amazing Ms. Miller, intrepid girl reporter."

And since I spent the weekend in the vicinity of her summer hometown, some of what I heard was delivered by people who know her well. Together all these pieces of information now comprise my newly labeled -- and ever-expanding -- Judy File.

Much more at the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/arianna-huffington/the-judy-file_4933.html

This one needs no further comment from me except that I think Judith Miller is only in the earliest phase of her jail time.

However, for those who may have missed it, the following is essential reading on Ms Miller:

Judy Miller: How Deep Do Her Connections Run?

by Arianna Huffington

July 28, 2005

The more I'm reading about Judy Miller and her actions leading up to and during the early days of the war, and then through the unfolding Plame-Rove-Libby-Gonzalez-Card scandal, the more I’m struck by the special access and relationships she enjoyed with many of the key players in the Iraq debacle (which, at the end of the day, is really what Plamegate is all about).

For starters, of course, we have her still unfolding involvement in the Plame leak. Earlier this month, Howard Kurtz reported that Miller and Libby spoke a few days before Novak outed Plame -- and I’m hearing that the Libby/Miller conversation occurred over breakfast in Washington. Did Valerie Plame come up -- and, if so, who brought her up? There is no question that Miller was angry at Joe Wilson… and continues to be. A social acquaintance of Miller told me that, once, when she spoke of Wilson, it was with “a passionate and heated disgust that went beyond the political and included an irrelevant bit of deeply personal innuendo about him, her mouth twisting in hatred.”

Miller’s special relationships go much further than Scooter Libby, Richard Perle and the rest of the neocon establishment. Take her involvement as an embedded reporter during the war with the Pentagon’s Mobile Exploitation Team (MET) Alpha -- the unit charged with hunting down Saddam’s WMD. As extensively reported by both Kurtz and New York Magazine’s Franklin Foer, Miller’s time with the unit was highly unusual.

Much more at the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/arianna-huffington/judy-miller-how-deep-do_4845.html

WATCH IT; SPREAD IT http://www.bushflash.com/right.html

Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us - How ever long it takes, the day must come when tens of millions of caring individuals peacefully but persistently defy the dictator, deny the corporatists their cash flow, and halt the evil being done in Iraq and in all the other places the Bu$h neoconster regime is destroying civilization and the environment in the name of "America."

[JackRiddler]

1. okay

I've been thinking and arguing it's bad news to establish the precedent that a reporter can be jailed for not disclosing sources, even if she deserves it for other reasons (such as serving as a whore to treasonous agents and chanelling lies designed to provide false casus belli for a "preventive" war of aggression).

But seeing all this in one place convinces me otherwise in the case of Ms. Miller. I somehow doubt she's simply refusing to reveal her Plame source. In fact I'm suspecting one of the indictments may have her name on it.

[seemslikeadream]

4. I thought her jail time might be protetive custody

till she tesifies and now that I read she's not allowed outside much, just seems a bit unusual.

[hang a left]

9. Protective custody......that is interesting, I never thought of that.

Do you think she plans on cooperating?

Not going outside is not unusual, especially if she is in a facility that doesn't have grounds. Especially if your in a multi-story facility. You might get to go up to the roof maybe during a rec activity. They don't have alot of recreational activities planned for you. She might be able to go to some AA or NA meetings, or a church service. Most of those are inside. She gets some TV, probably a daily newspaper on her unit she has to share with others. A bookcase with some books. Lots of time to sleep. She'll get to use a payphone but all her calls have to be collect. It sucks, but it is not unbearable enough to make you talk if you really don't want to. Not where she is anyway.

[understandinglife]

5. As I oft stated, Judy will soon have to count to 5, as the 1st is really

.... not the relevant ammendment in her case(s). But, it makes for sappy, self-serving media blathering and maybe a book deal - though as Arianna so correctly advises the S&S editor "Hold your horses or, if you can't, keep the advance very low. A reporter going to jail to protect her own ass and not a source smells like remainder to me."


Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[hootinholler]

14. If she was able to take the 5th, she would have testified...

The information isn't about her. She didn't write about Plame, so the 1st doesn't apply to her either.

Her only options are refuse to testify, or die. She has information about others actions and as Harold Rhodes said: "Those who speak, pay."

I posted my outline of players in this about 2 weeks ago in this thread.

-Hoot

[Garbo 2004]

12. No precedent was set by Miller. There have been other instances of jailed

reporters who refused to identify sources or turn over info. Earlier this year a TV news reporter at a RI station was released after four months house arrest for refusing to say who leaked video of a local pol taking a bribe. Previously in 2001 a freelance writer served time in jail for refusing to turn over notes for a book she was writing about a criminal case. Of course, none of these were hotshot "star" reporters for the NYT.

Miller's case is not precedent setting, although Miller and the media apparently would like people to think so.

[FourStarDemocrat]

2. Great reading! I'm glad that Arianna's on her case.

I hope Fitzgerald indicts her soon for criminal contempt. Hope you're getting used to jail Judy, you're gonna be in the slammer for a long time. :)

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. What a smart lady, Huffington is.

To get the attention of a priss like Judy Miller, spread the lady's business all across town. And there's Miller in prison with not even her cold creams to comfort her.

[faithnotgreed]

6. again~ thank you ms huffington

youre taking this to the people in a wise accessible way and i thank you for the information

[KittyWampus]

7. Wow, Arianna Does Some Seriously Good Dish!

:D

[faithnotgreed]

8. also make sure to read response by "john smith"

he lays out a very likely scenario (as duers have discussed to some extent) concerning judy miller and karl rove


also read post by "the confidence man" for an extension of this theory (as also speculated by duers)

the responses are great
its like reading the posts here

[peacetalksforall]

10. I think it would be worthwhile to expand the phrasing to include the

employers of these people. Judy Miller - NYT - I'm sure they don't allow her to operate independently of NYT and still get paid by them. Novak - WP?

Why was it left to Novak to write the column? WP approved of it?

Another thing that must be settled - is the Tenet role. It is obvious that Cheney's most trusted allies were from the NSC and the military. Now that would be State, NSC, and the military with the move of Rice from NSC to State, but leaving in place the most active of their strategists and operatives - Hadley.

Since Rumsfeld and Cheney want Mil Intel to take over from the CIA, the CIA is central here. And Tenet holds the key of knowledge, if not blame, if not credit.

I want to know if he was asked to do something that he refused to do - so was bounced or had to quit, but was then honored to pacify CIA employees? This is all trite or deadly serious if the falling out is about wmd.

Anyway - I am going to pay much more attention to the propaganda outlets - they are in on the deals to out Plame even though one of them allowed the op-ed from Wilson.

Those corporations may need their own lawyers.

Just as Rove and Libby did not plot all this on their own for revenge, Miller and Novak and any of the others did not act on their own. People are crazy to believe that employees did it all.

[understandinglife]

13. imho, it's Powell & Tenet VS Cheney, Gonzales, Rumsfeld, Feith, ...

...Bolton, Perle. Rove, Abrams, Ledeen, Libby and others are bit players. Judith Miller, from her Poindexter days forward, is a key functionary of the neoconster mob:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4220831&mesg_id=4232606

Bu$h -- this dangerous, evil dude knows exactly what he's doing; the neoconsters work for him and his daddy, not the other way around -- again, just my opinion.

Fitzgerald, Larry Johnson, Ambassador Wilson, Valerie Plame, the folk at State INR, and who knows how many other patriots know exactly what the neoconster regime has been contriving and doing.

Thanks to a duplicitous, or worse, media - many Americans are mis-informed. But, even with all the misinformation and non-information and lies, more and more of our fellow citizens get it. And that will be what brings Bush and the neoconsters to their fall and their day in court.


Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[peacetalksforall]

18. I agree with everything you say, however, I think Bush gets it only

after a lot of tutoring and coaching. I think he is incapable of processing a lot of detail. I don't think he is capable of holding a lot of detail in his brain. I don't think he is interested in holding and processing detail. I don't think he has creativity. I don't think he likes to spend much time thinking - except about one thing - his idea of loyalty and revenge. Combined with an extreme stubbornness and a grandiose assessment of himself that was nurtured by everyone in his life - and with all his handlers, we have a lethal dud of humanity who with his handlers are causing an unnatural disaster for the world.

I don't believe that he figured out the Iran is in the way of water and oil to Israel and the Mediterranean and everyone proceeded to arrange it. I believe others created the plan and are strategizing it and they clue him in.

God help this planet.

[in_cog_ni_to]

11. "Lucky Lady"...??????? Oh, really? I wonder how lucky she feels now?

while her hubby is cruising around having a nice vacation? Someone needs to talk to Chief Warrant officer Richard Gonzales! Arianna, you rock! :yourock:



<snip>
And no fewer than four sources have either e-mailed, called, or, in one case, run up to me on the street to tell me that what I termed Miller's "especially close relationship" with Chief Warrant Officer Richard Gonzales, the leader of the WMD-hunting unit Miller was embedded with during the war, might have been, well, very close indeed. According to one insider, Miller had emailed a picture of Gonzales to a colleague at the Times with the message "Lucky Lady".<snip>

[wli]

15. "to jail an Operation Mockingbird agent"

Well duh, isn't it obvious?

[Al-CIAda]

16. .

[Skittles]

17. Ms. Miller gives new meaning to the term media whore

she may have very well been the original media whore

[libnnc]

21. Your money's on the dresser, Judy. n/t

[understandinglife]

19. Interesting perspective from Congressman Conyers

<clip>

I am unaware of any of the federal rules of evidence or common law that provides an absolute shield, with no exceptions, to anyone. There are limits to all sorts of privileges either by rule or by case law, including the right of one spouse to decline to testify against the other, or a priest to decline to testify against a penitent, or a doctor to decline to disclose conversations with a patient. Many of those exceptions are grounded in the reasoning that when the case at hand no longer is supportive of the privilege, the privilege should not apply.

What has been raised by Arianna need not be true for it to have value as a hypothetical. To me, the public policy rationale for the reporter's privilege is to protect the sources of that reporter who are exposing government wrongdoing or corruption. What if, however, the leak does not expose any such corruption, but constitutes the corruption itself? Should the journalistic shield apply in that instance?

More brazenly, what if the reporter is one of the leakers? Should that be shielded?

More at the link (and comments):

http://www.conyersblog.us/archives/00000191.htm

Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[understandinglife]

20. Clifford D May: "Arianna judges Judy"

Arianna Judges Judy: Could Judy Miller have been the White House’s source?

by Clifford D May

August 1, 2005

Here's a sentence I never thought I'd write: Arianna Huffington has a point.

<clip>

But Huffington's basic point is perceptive (another sentence I never thought I'd write): Miller may not want to reveal her "source" at the White House "because she was the source....In this scenario Miller wasn't an innocent writer caught up in the whirl of history. She had a starring role in it."

Link:

http://www.nationalreview.com/may/may200508010813.asp

Amusing to watch folk like May squirm.


Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[understandinglife]

22. James Moore: "That Awful Power: How Judy Miller Screwed Us All"

Judith Miller of the New York Times, stood at a distance. A man in "non-descript clothing," wearing a blue baseball cap, emerged from a military vehicle, and walked into the Iraqi desert. As he pointed to the ground in several locations, the man was watched by American soldiers of the Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha (MET Alpha.) According to Miller, the unnamed individual was an Iraqi scientist with more than a decade of experience in Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological weapons programs. Supposedly, he was showing the U.S. troops where he had buried deadly compounds and other agents.

Three days later, Miller, in a front page story for the U.S.' most influential newspaper, wrote a fourteen hundred word story entitled; "AFTEREFFECTS: PROHIBITED WEAPONS; Illicit Arms Kept Till Eve of War, An Iraqi Scientist Is Said to Assert." In her lead paragraph, Miller said that she and the MET Alpha team members had discovered the proof of Weapons of Mass Destruction, a Bush Administration argument for invading Iraq.

<clip>

But burgeoning criticisms of Judith Miller's work have gone beyond the story of the "baseball capped" scientist to question both the timing, and the standards of her journalism, as well as public traces of her own politics. However, the MET Alpha team's mysterious scientist has brought her the largest amount of ridicule from media critics. Probably, the most incisive, painful assessment of that report came from one of Miller's own colleagues in the Times news room, who was quoted by a columnist in the New York Observer.

"It was," he said, "a wacky-assed piece."

Even wackier, though, was what Judy Miller and her newspaper did to improperly influence the most profoundly important political decisions in America.

From That Awful Power: How Judy Miller Screwed Us All by James Moore on August 1, 2005

Much, much more at the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/jim-moore/that-awful-power-how-jud_4986.html

Ms Miller, I've written it before and I'll write it again, irrespective of whether you learn how to count to 5, you're still going to spend the bulk of the remainder of your corrupt life in jail.

And, just imagine all the law suits against you and the New York Times the families of American soldiers killed and injured in Iraq are going to file.

And, then, just imagine all the criminal charges folk in Iraq will be sending your way.


Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[MidnightWind]

23. Love it. Hope Arianna keeps the info coming and the heat

turned up on Miller! :bounce: