Shocker: Judith Miller questioned 'biolab trailers' in 2003

[kpete]

Fallen New York Times reporter had questioned 'biolab' trailers

Ron Brynaert
Published: Wednesday April 12, 2006

The Washington Post's article Wednesday which "reveals" that the Bush Administration used knowingly bad intelligence about Iraq's alleged "biolab" weapons trailers was questioned before -- by the New York Times' fallen WMD wunderkind Judith Miller.

RAW STORY has rediscovered an article about intelligence analysts questioning the trailer claims published by Miller and William Broad in the New York Times June 7, 2003.

Miller's piece came two weeks before her conversation with "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's then chief of staff -- a conversation which later resulted in Miller ending up in jail when she wouldn't disclose who she'd spoken with or the contents of her conversation. Miller was freed after agreeing to testify in the CIA leak case.

Soon thereafter, amid questions that the Times had hyped the Iraqi threat, Miller was pulled off the weapons of mass destruction beat. Miller has been accused by critics of hyping pre-war intelligence that supported the Administration's case for war -- and sources in the Times newsroom have said one of Miller's primary sources was John Bolton -- then an Undersecretary for State for Arms Control who later became Bush's pick for the UN.

Excerpts from Miller's and Broad's article (which can be found here) follow.

more at:
http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Fallen_New_York_Times_reporter_had_0412.html

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. I think it is pretty well established that Miller was the "go-to" shill

for BushCo prior to the war.

[Kutjara]

2. I've posted elsewhere that...

...what's shocking about this story is that its just being reported in the US now. In the UK and the rest of Europe, the true nature of the trailers was reported in the press nearly three years ago. Someone here's done a great job of hiding it until now.

[KoKo]

3. So....is Bennett now making sure that his client Miller get's off the hook

when all the dirt finally comes out? Is Bennett behind getting the Press to release what they knew about what wasn't found in Iraq?

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Miller's British source for this was almost certainly Dr. David Kelly

From the Hutton Inquiry evidence:

5 Q. Did you get hold of Dr Kelly?
6 A. No. I think Dr Kelly was in Iraq looking at the
7 trailers at that stage.
8 Q. Did you leave a message?
9 A. I left a message asking him to call me on this issue.
10 Q. Then, as I understand it, the article was published,
11 that is the first article on mobile trailers was
12 published.
13 A. I should also point out that the day before we
14 published, the New York Times had published a very
15 similar investigation quoting a British source who had
16 doubts about it.
17 Q. Right. So the article is then published. Do you later
18 hear from Dr Kelly after the article is published?
19 A. Towards the end of the following week, which would be
20 the Sunday of June 15th, I came into the office and
21 found a message from him asking me to call him.
22 Q. You called him?
23 A. I called him, yes.
24 Q. Briefly, how did the conversation go?
25 A. He wanted to know what -- he had a vague idea what I was

120
1 calling about but he wanted to know, and I pointed to
2 the article we had written the week before and he said:
3 I am sorry, I could not possibly have seen that. So
4 I told him the substance of what it was. He replied:
5 yes, yes, something like that. When I pressed him on,
6 you know, what he meant, he said: well, the facilities
7 are as the Iraqis describe them.

http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/transcripts/hearing-trans17.htm

Miller knew Kelly well - remember he sent her the email about 'dark actors' shortly before he died.