The Traitorous Judith Miller Is Also A Liar

At least it seems that way. As Arianna noted yesterday:

The first question raised by the Times’ Judy-Culpa and by Judy Miller’s own account is: Who told Judy about Valerie Plame (or “Flame” as the name appears in Judy’s notes)? According to these two pieces, the name was immaculately conceived. "As I told Mr. Fitzgerald, I simply could not recall where that came from," Miller writes.

When the Plame case broke open in July 2003, these notes were presumably no more than a few weeks old. But who had revealed Plame’s name was not seared on Miller's mind?

This is as believable as Woodward and Bernstein not recalling who Deep Throat was. It also means that Judy went to jail to protect a source she can't recall.

Arianna's last point touches upon what was going on in my mind yesterday as I was reading the NYTimes account of all this as well as Miller's own account. This scandal centers on who outed Valerie Plame. Although Miller claims she can't remember who told her about Plame's status as a covert CIA operative, she was perfectly willing to sleep on a thin jail mattress for a couple months merely because her notes might have suggested that it was Libby who told her about Plame. That's Judy Miller's story and she's sticking to it.

That doesn't make any sense to me, particularly when you consider that Miller had a signed waiver from Libby all through this ordeal. Indeed, the reason the judge threw her in jail is because Miller had that waiver. "She has the keys to release herself," Judge Hogan said. "She has a waiver she chooses not to recognize."

Miller, in her own account, unwittingly points out the ridiculousness of her "I can't remember" defense:

Mr. Fitzgerald asked whether I ever pursued an article about Mr. Wilson and his wife. I told him I had not, though I considered her connection to the C.I.A. potentially newsworthy. I testified that I recalled recommending to editors that we pursue a story.

Mr. Fitzgerald asked my reaction to Mr. Novak's column. I told the grand jury I was annoyed at having been beaten on a story. I said I felt that since The Times had run Mr. Wilson's original essay, it had an obligation to explore any allegation that undercut his credibility. At the same time, I added, I also believed that the newspaper needed to pursue the possibility that the White House was unfairly attacking a critic of the administration.

So, she was "annoyed" that she was beaten on a story, but she doesn't remember who gave her the story on which she was beaten? As eriposte at The Left Coaster points out:

[H]ere is what Miller wants us to believe. She wanted so badly to write a story about Valerie Plame/Wilson and her CIA identity, but she just does not recall the source who gave her the name "Valerie [F/P]lame". Does anyone really believe this nonsense other than her partner-in-journalistic-malpractice Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., and her feckless boss Bill Keller? What was she going to say in that article - "A source I can't recall (and a former Hill staffer) said that Valerie Plame works in the CIA"?

Not to mention, her claim that she recommended an article be written, itself appears to be a fabrication, as the NYT article notes. . . .

Miller's ability to now claim that she simply does not remember was undoubtedly aided by the amount of time that had passed between the outing of Plame and Miller's eventual appearance in front of the grand jury. And that was obviously the whole BushCo strategy all along -- stall out this matter by referring it to Attorney General (and Karl Rove-buddy) John Ashcroft for a few months.

After all, the longer the whole thing stayed on the back burner, the easier it would be for the traitors involved to later claim "we don't remember." The Bush Regime's strategy was certainly aided by a complacent Corporate Media -- the mainstream press did not report on this story until nearly two-and-a-half months after the now-infamous Robert Novak column revealed Plame as a CIA operative.

That's what Judith Miller is doing here -- she's following the BushCo playbook as best she can and hoping that the passage of time makes her story appear less absurd. Although Miller's statement that she doesn't remember who told her about Valerie Plame is quite obviously a lie, it re-raises this important question: Is she merely protecting Scooter Libby, or someone higher up in the administration?