Burning Questions (Miller's notetaking skills & one rumored source)

Newsweek ^ | 10/18/05 | Christopher Dickey

[frankjr]

... "For some reason none of us had a tape recorder, so on the flight back to Casablanca we compared our notes from the one interview we’d had with a Moroccan general a few hours before. We wanted to be sure the phrases we’d scribbled down were accurate. But there was a problem. Judy had many more quotes in her notebook than I and another reporter had in ours. And Judy’s were much better. Then I realized why. I’d done a lot more homework on that particular story than she did, and I was asking much more detailed questions. She’d written them down, and now she thought they came from the general, but many of the quotes actually were from … me." ...

"Given the way Judy takes notes, I’m not surprised that she can’t remember who first gave her the name of “Flame.” I’ve even seen speculation that it came from one of her other not-so-reliable sources, Iraqi exile leader (and now vice president) Ahmad Chalabi, who peddled so many of the WMD rumors that wound up as facts in the Times. Ahmad keeps close tabs on his enemies, and I know first-hand that he counted many people at the C.I.A. on that list. When I e-mailed one of Chalabi’s aides to ask point blank if Chalabi was Judy’s source for Plame’s name, the aide responded: “Come on Chris … get back to serious work.” That seemed like a non-denial denial, so I asked again. “I'm not going to dignify it any further,” was the reply. “It is utter rubbish and you really should know better than to even listen to such rehashed '...' claptrap.”

So, I don’t know if Ahmad was the source. But I do know this. His agenda was to get Saddam ousted at any price..."

[jennyjenny]

I've worked with public school teachers. I've worked with reporters at a big city newspaper.

Both groups are largely composed of arrogant people with below average IQ's.

I completely agree.

[jennyjenny]

The poster didn't say "everyone" in these professions, he/she said the professions were "largely composed of...".

[jennyjenny]

Ughhhhh, sorry, I should have read through the thread before responding.

[thepizzalady]

"...She was NOT covert. No one could have "leaked" her name...This is not about Plame, it's about the MSM/dems trying to bring down a this President!..."

It is my opinion that this was a setup from the beginning by none other than Wilson himself. His "report" got little or no attention, and he certainly craves attention.

When his wife's name was mentioned offhandedly by Novak, Wilson jumped on that as a way to embarrass the Bush administration. He is the one who accused the administration of leaking the name. He is also the person to call for an investigation. And the media helped him by running with this as some serious failing of the Bush administration. As they run with anything that could remotely bring down The Republicans.

As I'm only too aware that what is important to the media ia not finding or reporting the truth, it is the seriousness of the charge. The media has taken EVERY opportunity to make mountains out of any mole hill they can find. I'm so tired of every talking head continuously equating the name Bush with, lies, culture of corruption, deceiption, falsehood etc.,etc.

[jennyjenny]

Yes, it was a set up from the beginning. Wilson thought he was going to get a cushy job with the new Kerry administration by helping him get elected with this information against the Bush administration. When it became apparent he was a liar and a liability to the Kerry campaign, he was dumped. That ticked him off and now this is where we are, only because the media continued to help this along.

[thepizzalady]

I'm reasonably sure it will never happen, but I'd love to see a report come out of the grand jury which accuses Wilson of knowingly and falsely accusing the Bush administration of a crime with the intent to cause harm.

Oh well, I can dream.

[Dolphy]

Chalabi as a source

I was surprised, reading over the weekend, to learn that Miller and Chalabi had a long standing relationship. He's a complete lightning rod among the neo-cons and anti neo-cons, one accusing the other of having unfairly targeted him in Iraq, the other claiming he was a spy. It seems funny that his name comes up in a case with similar polarities.

[Amadeo]

It looks like the prosecutors trail ends with Judy Miller. He can't hang the charge on Libby, at least not yet. It's Judy's turn to Cry.

[sirchtruth]

I'm so tired of every talking head continuously equating the name Bush with, lies, culture of corruption, deceiption, falsehood etc.,etc.

No matter how hard they try to put it on Bush it just righteously reflects right back on them...and they're so stupid they don't even realize it.

If you notice, they're really trying hard to bring down Miller now.

[kcvl]

"discussed it at cocktail parties"




Even before the president's budget director parked his motorcycle outside the front door, there was an only-in-Washington feel to the Sunday night sendoff of NBC News White House correspondent Campbell Brown, on her way to New York and Today show stardom.

At the buffet at Brown's home in Adams Morgan, former ambassador Joseph Wilson IV waxed indignant about the perfidies of the senior administration officials who he believes leaked the identity of his CIA-agent wife, Valerie Plame Wilson. … The buzz, though, focused on a shy and attractive blonde who sat nibbling finger sandwiches and discreetly introduced herself only as 'Valerie.'

—Washington Post "Names and Faces" column, Oct. 22.



Plame … mingled unobtrusively last month at a party at the home of the Washington Post's Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn.

—Howard Kurtz, "CIA Agent Valerie Plame Goes Undercover in Vanity Fair," in the Dec. 3 Washington Post.

[Edit35]

I think it's likely that indictments, if any, would fall on media personas as well as administration figures.

I am stunned at the fact that the CIA, or the Justice Dept., or whomever, has not filed some type of negligence charge against Valerie Plame for her deceiptful, corrupt, politically motivated decision to send her own husband Joe Wilson -- KNOWING THAT he was a virulent anti-Republican, anti-Bush idealogue who would slant his Niger report (in other words, lie thru his teeth) to make GWB look bad.

If this prosecutor, Fitzgerald, and I'm really beginning to wonder about him, goes after Rove and Libby in this, and if the Bush Administration then fails to hit back hard by FIRST, squashing those indictments and SECOND: by having the new CIA Director Porter Goss FIRE Valerie Plame -- then I must conclude that BUSH is a wimp.

How GWB can stand there while people under his command lie, corrupt, and distort --- I'll never know.

If Bush's Attorney General fails to go after Plame and Wilson, then the Administration deserves anything that happens. To hell with politics. It is obvious that these two politico idealogues hatched a plan to distort the record in hopes of defeating President Bush in the 2004 election.

If THAT is not criminal, playing with the CIA in order to win elections, then NOTHIng in the govt. should ever be illegal.

[Steve_Seattle]

In the friend-of-court brief filed by more than 40 major media organizations in the Miller/Cooper case, the brief argued that the CIA should have known that sending Wilson to Niger would inevitably lead to questions about why he - non-CIA, not an expert in WMD issues, a loose cannon, etc - was selected for the trip, and this would inevitably lead reporters to Plame. Thus the brief argued that the CIA's reckless choice of Wilson in itself jeopardized Plame's security status, whatever it was.

[Edit35]

the brief argued that the CIA should have known that sending Wilson to Niger would inevitably lead to questions

Has the court (Judge??) commented on the brief, or otherwise made any decisions?

And does this have an effect on whether the prosecutor files an indictment?