by John M. Curtis
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Copyright October 3, 2005
All Rights Reserved.

prung from federal detention, New York Times veteran reporter Judith Miller finally took the witness stand before the grand jury and Special Counsel U.S. Atty. Patrick J. Fitzgerald, investigating who outed covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, the wife of former Iraq ambassador Joseph Wilson IV. Miller was incarcerated July 6, for contempt of court, namely, refusing to reveal her source. Miller was fingered for possibly divulging information to Chicago Sun Times columnist Robert Novak, whose July14, 2003 syndicated-column exposed Plame as a CIA agent. Only eight days before, Wilson published a scathing commentary in New York Times, blasting the White House for manipulating intelligence about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction to justify the Iraq war. Wilson disputed Bush's false claim in the 2003 State of the Union message that Saddam sought “yellocake” uranium from Niger.

      For nearly two years, Fitzgerald has tried to get to the bottom of who divulged Plame's identity, a possible federal crime. At same time Miller refused to talk, Time Magazine journalist Matthew Cooper was given a waiver, allowing him to avoid jail and testify before the grand jury. Miller, on the other hand, presumably had the same waiver but opted for jail. She protected I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, the same person that released Cooper. For more than a year, Libby and his Philadephia lawyer Joseph Tate released all journalists—including Miller—from any obligation to maintain confidentiality. Choosing jail, Miller and New York Times were either going overboard with journalistic principle or trying to obfuscate Miller's zealous reporting about Iraq's alleged arsenal. Miller's reporting mirrored White House claims about Saddam's WMD.

      Miller thought she was getting the real scoop from inside the horse's mouth, the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. She couldn't get much closer to the president, other than speaking directly with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, also under investigation, for giving potentially inconsistent statements. With Tate and Libby's blanket release, it's puzzling why Miller and the New York Times opted for jail other eliciting pity from the journalistic community. Miller, 57, spent 85 days in jail to protect a source that had publicly released her from secrecy. “I am leaving jail today because my source has now voluntarily released me from my promise of confidentiality regarding our conversations relating to the Wilson-Plame matter,” read Miller after her release from jail Sept. 29. Yet that release was already assured on July 6, the date she went to jail.

      Miller went to jail not to protect Libby but to safeguard her sources from whom she learned Plame's identity. Libby denied leaking Plame's identity and insisted he learned her name from journalists, perhaps Miller. “My attorneys have also reached an agreement with the Office of Special Counsel regarding the nature and scope of my testimony, which satisfied my obligation to keep faith with my sources,” read Miller, revealing Fitzgerald would limit her interrogations to Libby. Miller's attorney Robert Bennett apparently worked out a deal with Special Counsel Fitzgerald and Libby's attorney Tate. With or without finding whom outed Plame, Fitzgerald may have enough testimony to wrap up the case and possibly indict high ranking officials, including Rove. “Much about Miller's role remains unclear,” wrote New York Times reporters David Johnson and Douglas Jehl.

      Miller's role in the Plame controversy goes to the heart of her prewar reporting, rubber-stamping White House contentions that Saddam possessed WMD. Miller's White House source was feeding her and the Times the same garbage manufactured by “Curveball,” the brother-in-law of Ahmed Chalabi, the Iraqi exile who supplied the White House and Pentagon the “intelligence” about Saddam's alleged arsenal of WMD. When Wilson published his commentary July 6, 2003 exposing how the White House manipulated intelligence leading up to war, dirty tricksters at the White House found a way to retaliate. Wilson had to be punished for telling the truth. Insiders knew, after all, that he was sent to Niger by his CIA wife to investigate false claims made in the State of the Union message. Miller was, after all, an influential journalist through whom to get out the White House message.

      Contrary to the New York Times, Miller didn't leave jail Sept. 29 because she obtained an unconditional voluntary waiver from her White House source, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. Miller was released after her attorney Bob Bennett received assurances from Patrick Fitzgerald that she would not have to reveal her real sources. It's quite possible that Libby didn't give her or Robert Novak the source of Plame's identity. It's no accident that GOP insider Novak was the hatchet man outing Plame to retaliate against Wilson's blistering indictment of the White House. For Miller and the New York Times, access is everything. Losing a high-placed White House source was suicide. It's a shame that access is more important that getting out the truth—namely, allowing the White House to feed disinformation to the nation's most prestigious newspaper. Yes, it's all about protecting sources.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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