Posted on 10/18/2005 7:51:47 AM PDT by SmokeRing
"Flame"-gate: With the New York Times' publication on Sunday of a staff article on the Judith Miller saga, as well as a personal account of the tale from Miller herself, the subject of Miller's memory lapse--selective or otherwise?--is on the front burner. According to the Times' staff article:
-------- "MS. MILLER SPENT 85 days in jail for refusing to testify and reveal her confidential source, then relented. On Sept. 30, she told the grand jury that her source was I. Lewis Libby, the vice president's chief of staff. But she said he did not reveal Ms. Plame's name.
AND WHEN THE prosecutor in the case asked her to explain how "Valerie Flame" appeared in the same notebook she used in interviewing Mr. Libby, Ms. Miller said she "didn't think" she heard it from him. "I said I believed the information came from another source, whom I could not recall," she wrote on Friday, recounting her testimony for an article that appears today." --------
I have a theory here. And I offer it mostly as--hopefully--an interesting intellectual exercise--not as something I'm married to: Of course Judith Miller remembers the source for the name "Valerie Flame" in her notes. But it’s not Libby. Also, this other source has not released her from a “deep background” confidentiality agreement. Rather than admit she remembers the source’s name and face more jail time by refusing to reveal it, she follows a course that both keeps her out of jail and preserves her promise to her source: She says she can’t remember.
So, in a world without shield laws, Miller has found a way to protect her sourcing promises. Her allegiance to journalism trumps her allegiance to the law of the land.
How would this debate play out in a J-school Media Law and Ethics course, I wonder? I think you’d find healthy-sized factions supporting all sides. A twist: Miller would usually receive backing from absolutist 1st Amendment advocates. But in this case, a significant portion of that group is angry with her for her WMD reporting in the run-up to the war in Iraq--and they're having the darnedest time keeping the two issues separate.
But back to my theory: Should the real source of the “Valerie Flame” note end up in Libby’s position—that is, being prosecuted for Plame-gate… then... Judith Miller will have new problems.
Still another theory: The “Flame” source is not Libby. However, Miller really can't remember exactly which source gave her the name "Valerie Flame." But she can recall a group of two or three people from whom that name must have come. Complicating matters further, maybe one or more of the people in that pool gave information on deep background—but not all. From a journalistic point of view, can you partially reveal names from that group based on the number of deep background sourcing promises to which you’re committed. I don’t think so. It’s all or nothing; and clearly Miller's chief aim is to honor her sourcing promises.
Until we know more, I offer these theories for general consumption... : )
This whole thing is a joke.
What is Joe good at? Hint: (Valerie outed herself to Joe on their 3rd date!!)
It's not a joke. Someone tried to screw with an election.
Well, ya gotta hand it to the little thing. She went to jail to protect a source she can't remember. Watta gal!
And THAT is where the true story lies, as opposed to the one the MSM wants to tell.
Why don't the jacka@@ Prosecutor just drop this nonsense. Why? He needs a high profile for his career.
Nothing to see here. Move it along.
My theory is that the NYT was trying to burn Bush. They went out on a limb with the "outing a CIA agent" thing. Then the got the Special Prosecutor they wanted figuring they would "Nixon" Bush through Rove (like Gordon Liddy). They only trouble was that the Special Prosecutor took his job seriously and called them on who did the outing. The NYT was caught on it's own petard and Miller went to jail to forestall the whole scam.
But they PROMISED me Karl Rove was going to jail. Now he'll probably be free, and on the streets.
When isn't the left trying to screw with an election?
Why did Joe reveal himself to the General Public by writing his article in the first place?
Miller already knew the name of Wilson's wife from a previous source (Wilson himself, or from Wilson through the reporter "grapevine"). And so when Libby says "Wilson's wife" Miller writes down "Valerie Flame" the name she recalled from previous knowledge.
It looks like the NYT is bailing on her, too. The Times was hoping for some indictments and she didn't deliver. All of the rhetoric over this being an ethical issue is absolutely hilarious.
True, Democrats are the American Sunni, only difference, for now, they lack the guts to pick up guns and plant EID's. I did say for now, I also remember the same dangerous creeps from the 60's, but they are now in congress and the universities.
A lot of "someones" tried to fix the election including Dan Rather and also, clearly, a rogue contingent of the CIA. Ping me when somebody finally goes to jail for trying to fix a Presidential election.
Very good point and that makes sense.
The whole point of this thing was to get Rove or someone in the administration. Do we see an investigation of the CIA people trying to hurt the administration? No, just a stupid witch hunt to claim the administration was so vindictive, petty and with nothing to do in the midst of running a war as to hunt for ways to get back at a cheap punk Joe Wilson.
And - by the way - why would that undercover agent have her picture (with her name) on the cover of a magazine and why would all Washington know that she had been undercover in the past - if any harm at all had been done to her?
This is just a re-working of the phony documents used over the National Guard issue.
Miller herself said one possibility is she tossed out the intentionally misspelled (or mis-pronounced in a verbal exchange) name in order to test Libby and see if he recognized the name.
That's what I think she did.
I wonder if her source was Larry Johnson. LJ made contact with Novak early on, so he might also have contacted Miller and planted the fake-but-almost-correct name with her (or maybe she just heard it wrong - Plame is an unusual name), hoping she would take that name to a WH official who would then confirm it, opening the door for the "outing" charge. LJ was clearly in cahoots with Wilson, and from day one LJ has been the main person insisting Plame was undercover and was deliberately "outed." Or maybe the "outing" idea occurred to them after the fact, after they (Wilson and/or LJ) had already revealed Plame's identity to Miller and possibly others. Plame's name quickly circulated among reporters and WH staff, as well as CIA officials, and then they concocted the "outing" theory - quickly and uncritically accepted by the media - to "get" Bush. it has always been obvious to me - he has admitted it publicly - that if anyone was intent on "getting" someone, it was Wilson and his confederates in the CIA or ex-CIA.
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