Embedded Reporter's Role In Army Unit's Actions Questioned (Miller, 2003)

[htuttle]

To put Judith Miller's role in perspective, I wanted to repost this article from shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It's quite clear that she is 'connected' to the point of being an auxilliary member of the Bush administration. I posted this link as a reply in another thread, but thought it deserves it's own.

Embedded Reporter's Role In Army Unit's Actions Questioned by Military
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&contentId=A28385-2003Jun24¬Found=true

New York Times reporter Judith Miller played a highly unusual role in an Army unit assigned to search for dangerous Iraqi weapons, according to U.S. military officials, prompting criticism that the unit was turned into what one official called a "rogue operation."

More than a half-dozen military officers said that Miller acted as a middleman between the Army unit with which she was embedded and Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi, on one occasion accompanying Army officers to Chalabi's headquarters, where they took custody of Saddam Hussein's son-in-law. She also sat in on the initial debriefing of the son-in-law, these sources say. Since interrogating Iraqis was not the mission of the unit, these officials said, it became a "Judith Miller team," in the words of one officer close to the situation.

In April, Miller wrote a letter objecting to an Army commander's order to withdraw the unit, Mobile Exploitation Team Alpha, from the field. She said this would be a "waste" of time and suggested that she would write about it unfavorably in the Times. After Miller took up the matter with a two-star general, the pullback order was dropped.

(snip)
"This was totally out of their lane, getting involved with human intelligence," said one military officer who, like several others interviewed, declined to be named because he is not an authorized spokesman. But, the officer said of Miller, "this woman came in with a plan. She was leading them. . . . She ended up almost hijacking the mission."

(more at link)

How many 'reporters' can direct US military units around in contravention of their existing orders? Not many, I'd guess...

[montanacowboy]

1. So, is she CIA?

[dbonds]

2. Sure sounds like, or at least some type of intelligence operative.

[htuttle]

4. Probably something connected to the Pentagon

I'd guess OSP or WHIG.

[Just Me]

7. Imagine that.

Judy may be a BushCo/neoCON PLANT in the media. Nothing new there.

[glitch]

6. bush wing.

From what I've read, there are factions. They could be warring.

She's no Cinnamon, that's for sure.

[thebigidea]

3. I was looking for this... extremely suspicious

I can betcha that none of the other embeds in Iraq have direct lines to Rummy they can intimidate soldiers with.

[chomskysright]

5. Who is Judith Miller REALLY?: sent to Olbermann

from www.democraticunderground.com

Hey: its not impossible. off the home page, 2nd article entitled "Save the First Amendment from Karl Rove."

hope you find this useful.

buddha8 (not me, to make things clear):


"I think there is more to this than meets the eye. It is quite possible that Miller herself is a mole placed in the NYTimes by Israel or simply by the white house. Is anyone familiar with her background? She was obviously engaged in the runup to the war in disseminating outrageous lies that were politically motivated. No journalist with any training at all would work so fulltime to distribute such unsubstantiated innuendo.

No way they get Rove. No one has the power to effect justice. The CIA has been purged. Gonzalez trolls the Justice Department and facists feed daily on Pennsylvannia Ave. Would be as likely that Hitler would turn Goebels in in 36'. Not possible. A liberal pipe dream. People are waking up too late now to the horror which is the complete and effective overthrow of the Republic. Democracy exists in name only and has been absent the scene for a good 5 years now. Just as in Germany, the few intellectuals who stayed realized too late the horror of their own inaction.

Whats next is a war for the huge natural gas fields in Iran, a draft, roundups of political dissidents, a new Patriot Act and god knows what hysterically staged 'terror' event here in Amerikanna. I hope I am wrong but the progression of things seems otherwise.

[deminks]

8. Thank you for posting this.

I so remember this story and thinking it is so odd. She may not be what she appears to be, and will go to jail rather than reveal her true colors. This may have been just the desparation of Bushco to find anything that resembled a WMD. Or JM's flaming ego. It is very strange. Spooky, if you will.

[Liberal Dose]

9. Thank you for the link. The article says that Miller is a "nationally

recognized expert on weapons of mass destruction." Strikes me as funny that with all her experience she'd be a reporter. Wonder if she was a colleague of Plame's?

[Jackpine Radical]

11. Wonder if she at least knew who Plame was...

and if so, was she the original source? Did she tell Rove, like the WP has speculated?

[htuttle]

12. I doubt she knew Plame as a colleague

Valerie Plame's cover was that she worked for Brewster-Jennings & Associates, which is in the petroleum consulting field. Her WMD work was all deep cover, and would probably not have been known by anyone in the defense field itself.

Plame had been a clandestine operative for around 20 years. You don't make rookie mistakes like blowing your cover to a reporter after two decades in that business.

[htuttle]

10. Kick for background

:kick:

[lockdown]

13. What's known about Miller from before she joined the NYT?

I was curious how long she'd worked there, started in 1977 according to Wikipedia, but it has no information on anything beyond her reporting. Anything known about her life pre "journalism", or on any older controversies she's been linked with while at the Times?

One snippet from Wikipedia:

Miller was previously the subject of controversy when in 1986 she wrote numerous articles on Libya, thus contributing to a massive disinformation campaign on Muammar al-Qaddafi which was coordinated by Admiral John Poindexter of the Reagan administration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Miller_%28journalist%29

[hootinholler]

14. Kick

[hootinholler]

15. NAother kick