Posted on 08/01/2005 1:18:02 PM PDT by West Coast Conservative
Here's a sentence I never thought I'd write: Arianna Huffington has a point.
She reports in the July 27 edition of "The Huffington Post" that in the halls of the New York Times, among the colleagues of imprisoned reporter Judy Miller, a theory is being debated. It boils down to this: Perhaps after Joseph Wilson's notorious op-ed appeared in the Times, Judy called a source (or two) in the intelligence community to find out how and why Wilson was sent by the CIA to Niger to investigate whether Saddam Hussein had sought to purchase uranium.
Perhaps her source(s) told her that Wilson got the assignment thanks to his wife, Valerie Plame, who works at CIA HQ in Langley.
Now further suppose that Miller is trying to develop this into a larger story on Wilson and the controversy over the Bush administration's arguments for regime change in Iraq. So she calls people in the White House, Karl Rove, maybe, or Dick Cheney deputy Scooter Libby or someone. (Newsday identified a meeting Miller had on July 8 — two days after Wilson's op-ed appeared, with an "unnamed" government official.)
Judy perhaps says: "My sources tell me that Wilson's wife works at the CIA and that she was the one who recommended that he get the Africa assignment. How does that square with Wilson's claim that Cheney sent him to Niger, and that Cheney received his report and ignored it?"
At this point, whoever in the White House Miller talked with would know about Plame — but not based on their access to classified information.
And he (or she or they) still would not necessarily know that Plame had some sort of undercover status. Judy's source(s) might not have told her that. Indeed, the source(s) might not have known. The source(s) may have become acquainted with Plame at CIA HQ in Langley. Presumably, Plame would not have told such colleagues that she occasionally worked undercover. They'd have no "need to know."
Rove, Libby, or others might have passed on what they learned from Judy to Bob Novak or Matt Cooper or other reporters. Why not? They'd want to tell the truth, to rebut Wilson's false spin that Cheney had sent him to Africa and then had ignored his conclusive report.
They would not be revealing to reporters any facts derived from their access to classified information. And they still wouldn't have any idea they were discussing a CIA secret (or sometimes-sort-of-secret) agent rather than a run-of-the-mill agency analyst.
If this is close to what happened, it would explain why Judy would not feel free to testify before a grand jury. Were she to do so, she'd get her source(s) fired, and probably prosecuted. Reporters don't like to do that.
It also would explain why independent prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald is keeping Miller in the slammer. If it were she who first told someone in the White House (who no doubt told others in the White House) about Plame, her testimony would be the key that solves the puzzle. In fact, without that key, it might be impossible for Fitzgerald to solve the puzzle.
There is much else in the Huffington post that is purely speculative and she also manages to throw plenty of mud at Rove and others — including Judy Miller whom Huffington accuses of having pushed "manipulated, twisted, and exaggerated intel in the Times."
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."
C'mon guys... Keep up the pressure.
This is getting ready to blow up in the Dems faces. I can smell it.
I agree. I get the feeling that Rove is like a cat toying with the mouse just waiting until it thinks it gonna get a way and then...WHAM! IMO of course.
I believe it was the Beltway Boys, maybe O'Reilly, where a letter writer first offered this opinion. If Huffington is making sense, your "sense-o-meter" may need recalibrating.
Funny how the Rove/Plame story has sort of fizzed out in the hourly MSM newscasts. For many weeks, it was the lead story of every broadcast. Now, as it looks more like Plame or Wilson 'outed' themselves, the story... has... just... sort of... faded....... away.
I still think the source for all Miller knew was Plane. She was at the WMD desk and Miller wrote about WMDs, getting info from an inside source. Add to the "there were no WMDs" while the CIA said there were, Wilson's no yellow cake, and you get a very interesting set of connections with Plane in the center.
Bingo.
Problem is that no matter who said that Wilson's wife recommended him for the mission to Niger, NO CRIME was committed.
There once was a CIA agent named Plame
Who thought nobody knew her name
Her husband named Joe, said the neighbors did know
So Karl Rove in the whitehouse was to blame.
Here's a sentence I never thought I'd write: Arianna Huffington has a point.
Yes and her hair covers it well.
No... no crime was committed... and when this goes back to the press, or Wilson/Plame themselves, everyone will blatantly see that it's just a witchhunt to get back at Rove. Pure and simple.
and with all this, miller sits in jails and says "duh"
Wa ComPost
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Love that name.. I need to start using it. Hope you dont mind me doing that. It has so many truthful meanings. :)
Does anybody care that this two-face political hack Valerie Plume who doesn't give a rats ass about US security was outed. This has to be the biggest non-story of the century, discounting Whoraldo's uncovering Al Capone's treasure.
please...be my guest....
I don't count on that ever happening. Convince me the MSM will admit they were after the wrong story/person (CIA/Rove)as getting them to admit error on their part is impossible. I do not think we will get the correct story in the MSM, but it will be in our blogs, etc. I believe things I read here in the Free Republic long before anything I get in the NY Times or Washington Post. It is usually a few days ahead of whatever those clowns are working on anyway, and by the time I read their lies, I already know the truth.
It's the microwave mentality of the MSM.
heck...Freepers were all over this from the get-go.
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