The Much-Anticipated NYTimes Piece on Judith Miller and TreasonGate

I just finished reading the long but occasionally interesting New York Times piece regarding the Judith Miller ordeal. This early paragraph in the article regarding Miller's September 30th grand jury testimony caught my eye:

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.

It sure sounds like she's still trying to cover up for old Scooter. Miller was clearly trying to do this back in the summer of 2004, when she was subpoenaed by Prosecutor Fitzgerald. The New York Times retained First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams to help Miller, and she gave the OK for Abrams to speak with Scooter Libby's attorney, Joseph Tate:

Mr. Abrams told Ms. Miller . . . that Mr. Tate said she was free to testify. Mr. Abrams said Mr. Tate also passed along some information about Mr. Libby's grand jury testimony: that he had not told Ms. Miller the name or undercover status of Mr. Wilson's wife.

That raised a potential conflict for Ms. Miller. Did the references in her notes to "Valerie Flame" and "Victoria Wilson" suggest that she would have to contradict Mr. Libby's account of their conversations? Ms. Miller said in an interview that she concluded that Mr. Tate was sending her a message that Mr. Libby did not want her to testify.

According to Ms. Miller, this was what Mr. Abrams told her about his conversation with Mr. Tate: "He was pressing about what you would say. When I wouldn't give him an assurance that you would exonerate Libby, if you were to cooperate, he then immediately gave me this, 'Don't go there, or, we don't want you there.' "

Mr. Abrams said: "On more than one occasion, Mr. Tate asked me for a recitation of what Ms. Miller would say. I did not provide one."

Meanwhile, Miller has placed her own "personal account" of her grand jury testimony on the New York Times website, and she provides some clues as to where Fitzgerald might be going with his investigation:

During my testimony on Sept. 30 and Oct. 12, the special counsel, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, asked me whether Mr. Libby had shared classified information with me during our several encounters before Mr. Novak's article. He also asked whether I thought Mr. Libby had tried to shape my testimony through a letter he sent to me in jail last month. And Mr. Fitzgerald asked whether Mr. Cheney had known what his chief aide was doing and saying.

As ponificator at Daily Kos notes, the following paragraphs from Miller's article certainly suggest that Fitzgerald is targeting Scooter in a big way:

Mr. Fitzgerald asked me to read the final three paragraphs [of Libby's letter to Miller] aloud to the grand jury. "The public report of every other reporter's testimony makes clear that they did not discuss Ms. Plame's name or identity with me," Mr. Libby wrote.

The prosecutor asked my reaction to those words. I replied that this portion of the letter had surprised me because it might be perceived as an effort by Mr. Libby to suggest that I, too, would say we had not discussed Ms. Plame's identity. Yet my notes suggested that we had discussed her job.

Finally, Judith Miller's days at the New York Times are probably numbered. Raw Story is reporting that Miller has taken an indefinite leave of absence:

"Judy is going to take some time off until we decide what she is doing next," Times' spokesperson Catherine Mathis told RAW STORY Saturday afternoon. * * *

The Times' Sunday story asserts that Miller has not signed a book deal as previously reported.

"She said she thought she would write a book about her experiences in the leak case, although she added that she did not yet have a book deal," the article says. "She also plans on taking some time off but says she hopes to return to the newsroom."

Two reporters inside the newsroom say they have heard Miller will resign from the paper.

Miller was not cooperative with the Times internal probe, reporters told RAW STORY Thursday. This was confirmed in the New York Times' internal probe.

By the way, 1970 American soldiers have died in Iraq so far. I wonder how many more will be dead when Miller's inevitable book comes out.