Judith Miller, Traitor? A Different Take

[nascarblue]

You can pretty much assume that journalists handling secret sources don't talk to each other, and can also assume that the Vice President's Office and Rove don't talk much, out of motives of possible personal animosity and to avoid the type of Watergate and Iran-Contra problems of which they are fully aware through bitter personal experience. What if Cheney or Libby found out about Plame (possibly from the memo referred to here) And, rather than tell Rove directly, told Miller?

There seems to be a Cheney-Miller connection, as evidenced by the fact that the Miller 'aluminum tubes' story was immediately followed by Cheney using it repeatedly in his build-up to war. Once Miller has the info, Cheney or Libby could hint to Rove that he might want to call Miller, and Miller would then pass on the information to Rove. Rove is then off the hook, as he is just the recipient of the scuttlebut of journalists, and can safely pass the information to Pincus, Cooper and Novak. The Rove e-mail message to Stephen Hadley about his conversation with Cooper, saying he 'didn't take the bait' when Cooper suggested that Wilson's criticisms had been damaging to the administration, is just papering the file for Rove's eventual legal defense. Cheney and Libby have cleverly used Miller to launder the information which Cheney wants to get to the press without having his fingerprints on it.

Miller uncharacteristically didn't write about the story, which may be evidence that she was in on the scheme. As long as she keeps quiet, Cheney and Libby are safe. Once she is out of jail, they can arrange for her to have a nice book deal, funded by the usual scam of wholesale buying of books by right-wing operators to make the book seem more popular than it actually is.


We're now getting very close to a UnifiedTheory(or here) of the Corruption of the Bush Administration, tying together Plamegate, the forged Niger documents, the AIPAC scandal, Miller's 'journalism', and John Bolton's work undermining the State Department. Bolton also ties intothe creation of the original yellowcake story. And don't forget Frederick Fleitz, his chief of staff, with an odd double posting between Bolton and WINPACin the CIA, where he would know about Plame, and a guy who parrots the Israeli line that 'UN peacekeepers wouldn't work in the Occupied Territories'), the information in the Downing Street Memos, David Wurmser and John Hannah and their Israeli connections within the Vice President's Office, and the machinations of the Office of Special Plans. All this concerns the lies which led to the attack on Iraq, lies which were primarily funneled out of the Vice President's Office. This information included lies from the Iraqi National Conference (through Miller) and Sharon's office (through Feith, and no doubt the assistance of AIPAC). The information battle was with the CIA, which was consistently trying to meddle by attempting to present the truth. Cheney actually had to go and attend at the CIA offices in order to shut the CIA up. The Office of Special Plans was created expressly to route the lies around the truth which the CIA was trying to present. Plamegate was just another shot across the bow of the CIA, a warning that the Vice President was fully capable of fighting dirty if the CIA wasn't ready to play along. It may also reflect, in miniature, the same conspiracy that led to the disastrous attack on Iraq.

[shraby]

1. Methinks you're very close to the whole enchilada.

For the life of me I can think of no reason for that top secret memo to be on the plane on a trip to Africa except for the purpose of setting up a conspiracy and making sure the facts they dispersed matched the info in the memo.

[nascarblue]

2. I wonder why Bolton isn't called to testify?

Speaking of testimony, what about Gannon/Guckert? Wasn't he questioned by the FBI? He wasn't questioned by Fitzgerald, was he?

Now that would really stir things up don't you think? A serving of treason with a little Greco-Roman man-on-man action on the side? LOL

[punpirate]

3. Much of this is possible...

... except for the isolation of Rove from Cheney's office, which you assert as an assumption of fact. The mere composition of and meeting schedule of the White House Iraq Group strongly suggests otherwise (and, note that this group's activities and communications are of particular interest to Fitzgerald, from recent news reports).

Those entities are much more intimately linked than you suggest, and for that reason, I would question the hypothesis, in part. My best guess, from the evidence, is that Miller did exceed her role as journalist, but not as a conduit of information to protect Rove. More likely, she acted to confirm knowledge already in possession of Rove and Libby.

One can speculate on Miller's motives for doing so (m'self, I think she thought that queering Wilson's Times article protected her previous specious reporting), but I don't think she's the primary conduit to protect Rove. Don't think she's that smart, nor that ingenious.

Cheers.

[teryang]

4. Also believe she played a role in David Kelly's death

...in England. Same subject, exaggerating the threat Iraq presented to promote war. Kelly was dead within hours after communicating with Miller.