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Was Judith Miller the Leaker or Leakee?

By Jeralyn, Section Valerie Plame Leak Case
Posted on Wed Jul 27, 2005 at 08:59:54 PM EST
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Arianna makes a persuasive case for the theory that Judith Miller obtained the info on Valerie Plame from one of her pals in the intelligence community and then passed it on to Libby who then passed it on to Rove:

Here it is: It's July 6, 2003, and Joe Wilson's now famous op-ed piece appears in the Times, raising the idea that the Bush administration has "manipulate[d]" and "twisted" intelligence "to exaggerate the Iraqi threat." Miller, who has been pushing this manipulated, twisted, and exaggerated intel in the Times for months, goes ballistic. Someone is using the pages of her own paper to call into question the justification for the war -- and, indirectly, much of her reporting. The idea that intelligence was being fixed goes to the heart of Miller's credibility. So she calls her friends in the intelligence community and asks, Who is this guy? She finds out he's married to a CIA agent. She then passes on the info about Mrs. Wilson to Scooter Libby (Newsday has identified a meeting Miller had on July 8 in Washington with an "unnamed government official"). Maybe Miller tells Rove too -- or Libby does. The White House hatchet men turn around and tell Novak and Cooper. The story gets out.

This is why Miller doesn't want to reveal her "source" at the White House -- because she was the source. Sure, she first got the info from someone else, and the odds are she wasn't the only one who clued in Libby and/or Rove (the State Dept. memo likely played a role too)… but, in this scenario, Miller certainly wasn't an innocent writer caught up in the whirl of history. She had a starring role in it. This also explains why Miller never wrote a story about Plame, because her goal wasn't to write a story, but to get out the story that cast doubts on Wilson's motives. Which Novak did.

But, where does it lead? Arianna thinks Frank Rich is on the right track, but he's not going far enough.

But one thing is inescapable: Miller -- intentionally or unintentionally -- worked hand in glove in helping the White House propaganda machine (for a prime example, check out this Newsweek story on how the aluminum tubes tall tale went from a government source to Miller to page one of the New York Times to Cheney and Rice going on the Sunday shows to confirm the story to Bush pushing that same story at the UN).

So, once again, the question arises (and you can't have it both ways, Frank): when it comes to this scandal, do you want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth or do you want the truth -- except for what Judy Miller wants to keep to herself?

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    Was Judith Miller the Leaker or Leakee? | 9 comments (9 topical)
    Re: Was Judith Miller the Leaker or Leakee? (none / 0) (#1)
    by theologicus on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:42 PM EST
    This is all very interesting (though still speculative). Even if it pans out, however, it seems to be beside the point. Ths issue is not who told Rove and Libby (and there could be more than one source). The issue is what they or their henchmen did with the information. In other words, who told Novak? Judging from Novak's mysterious encounter with a spook in the street, it looks as though it could have been Shallow Throat. The perfect cut out.

    Re: Was Judith Miller the Leaker or Leakee? (none / 0) (#2)
    by swingvote on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:42 PM EST
    Theologicus, I'm not convinced that this is anything more than another lame theory on why Judith Miller isn't talking but how can it be irrelevant? If the theory holds, and it was Miller who told Rove about Valerie Plame's alleged status as a covert agent, then Karl Rove merely repeated to one reporter what he heard from another reporter. Her status as a "covert" agent would have appeared to be common knowledge. (Or are we to believe that journalists always know these things even though they are secret?) What constitutes a leak? Does repeating something someone else has told you meet that bar? I'm not plumping for Rove here, as this whole theory seems like a grand supposition, and he is at the very least a political idiot for getting involved, but if you can be charged with a crime for repeating what someone in the media has told you on the grounds that they shouldn't have known it, you put a burden on everyone to know everything, all the time, and to know who should know what and when they should know it. Imagine the outcry from this site if Bush suggested that should be the standard by which others would be judged. The only thing this theory has going for it is that it begins to explain why Miller is still not talking; her source has not been identified.

    Re: Was Judith Miller the Leaker or Leakee? (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:43 PM EST
    I have been supposing this very scenario for a month now. However, assuming it to be true, it still begs the question of whether it provides a basis for a crimnal charge of "leaking." (IIPA) It sure sounds like we've probably had some obstruction and some perjury from Rove and others at the WH, but do we have a IIPA criminal conspiracy which includes Judy Miller? Does the special counsel need Judy's testimony to get her first source indicted? Probably, or else he could just indict her and go up to Rove, Libby, etc. and stop it there until the next round of cooperation allowed him to go back beyond Judy.

    Re: Was Judith Miller the Leaker or Leakee? (none / 0) (#4)
    by theologicus on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:43 PM EST
    Thanks, justpaul. [Plame's] status as a "covert" agent would have appeared to be common knowledge. I'm no expert, but I doubt that this line of defense would work for an official like Rove.

    Re: Was Judith Miller the Leaker or Leakee? (none / 0) (#5)
    by swingvote on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:43 PM EST
    Theologicus, I'm confused. If we assume this new theory is correct about Rove being told by Judith Miller that Joe Wilson's wife was a CIA operative, how do we get to the point where we still assume that Karl should have known that this fact was a secret? If a journalist is walking around DC peddling the fact that Valerie Plame is a CIA operative, why would anyone assume this wasn't a well-known fact? Are we supposed to give Judith Miller the benefit of the doubt and just assume she's a lying dimwit? Even if we expect Rove to go and find out if Plame is in fact a spook, what happens when he does and Miller's story is shown to be true? At that point, Rove has every reason to believe that it is known that Plame is an operative, since Miller clearly knows it, and journalists are known to talk to each other on a regular basis (indeed, an enterprising individual can frequent several bars in DC and if their hearing is good can learn all kinds of things just by sitting quietly at the bar and listening to the reporters who have gathered for another evening gab fest). I still think this theory is more hot air than substance, but if it's true, it means Valerie Plame's employment status was a known fact before Karl Rove said one word on it, which means that Karl can't be indicted for leaking this information since it was already out there. I'm no expert either, but if this is the case, it makes the prosecutors actions much more understandable. He's after whoever told Miller.

    Re: Was Judith Miller the Leaker or Leakee? (none / 0) (#6)
    by theologicus on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:43 PM EST
    Hi justpaul, Well, it is confusing. But if you read around in the blog by Mark Kleiman (easliy googled), sometimes cited by Jeralyn, you'll get a sense of the legal obligations that bind officials like Rove and journalists like Miller. Also a search in the TalkLeft archives might help. It doesn't matter what "insiders" might have known. What matters is leaking it to Novak for the purposes of public disclosure and as a means of retaliating against Wilson. Whoever did that is culpable.

    Re: Was Judith Miller the Leaker or Leakee? (none / 0) (#7)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:43 PM EST
    I don't buy it. Arianna's argument assumes a few things I find hard to swallow. "Miller, who has been pushing this manipulated, twisted, and exaggerated intel in the Times for months, goes ballistic." So Miller, the pusher of twisted intelligence, becomes more angry than the manufacturers of that intelligence when it is called into question? So angry that she wants to discredit Wilson? "So she calls her friends in the intelligence community and asks, Who is this guy? She finds out he's married to a CIA agent." This seems a little too convenient, doesn't it? In two sentences we've gone from Miller not knowing who Wilson is, to her knowing the identity of his undercover operative wife. The intelligence community doesn't just volunteer information like that unless they have a very specific agenda, and since it was the intelligence community that was wounded by the outing of Plame, I don't see what they had to gain by passing the info to Miller. There's more but the bottom line is this, often the simplest answer is the correct one. People with security clearences and a history of using leaks to attack their enemies decided to both discredit Wilson and take revenge upon him by revealing that his wife worked for the CIA and insinuating that she sent him to Africa. Certainly many other things took place on the periphery (and Miller may still be criminally liable for some of those things) but the idea that it was Miller who ferreted out Plame's identity and passed it to the administration in the hopes that they would use the information exactly as they did seems too far a stretch.

    Re: Was Judith Miller the Leaker or Leakee? (none / 0) (#8)
    by swingvote on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:43 PM EST
    Theologicus, I know there are many here who like to paint Miller as some nefarious Republican operative, but she's hardly an insider. She's a reporter. If she knew it, and was talking about it, it was public knowledge, as she is a member of the public. I seriously doubt Karl Rove ever had a list of all CIA operatives/employees, or even a list of the ones they were trying to keep secret. As such, he can't be blamed for assuming that this women's employment history was known when a reporter with a national publication was talking about it. And you can't assume what his or anyone else's motives were just because Joe Wilson says so or because it fits your political idealogy. Wilson's story has enough holes in to make questioning his credibility reasonable. Rove hasn't offered up his reasoning as far as I know. It's all speculation. Thanks for the input though. I'm a little leery of taking the word of anyone with an obvious axe to grind, but the information is valued.

    Re: Was Judith Miller the Leaker or Leakee? (none / 0) (#9)
    by The Heretik on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:01:43 PM EST
    Eveyone was involved! Judy plays two roles! Condi gets cooked with mushrooms. What a dope opera.

    Was Judith Miller the Leaker or Leakee? | 9 comments (9 topical)