Connected at the Roots? Judith Miller, “Scooter” Libby, and the June Notes

[hang a left]

On May 6, 2003, just days after President Bush had triumphantly declared the Iraq invasion based on lies “Mission Accomplished,” Nicholas Kristof published an article in the New York Times revealing that a key lie -- the now-infamous allegation that Saddam’s Iraq had tried to purchase uranium from Niger that highlighted Bush’s 2003 State of the Union speech -- had been debunked almost a year before by a former U.S. ambassador after traveling to Niger to investigate. On June 12, Walter Pincus in the Washington Post followed up with more details. The former ambassador in question, Joseph Wilson, was a source for both articles, but Wilson himself didn’t go public until he published his op-ed piece in the New York Times on July 6.

On July 8 Vice President Cheney’s chief deputy and key neocon, Lewis “Scooter” Libby met with the NYT’s Judith Miller and apparently discussed Wilson with her. On July 14 Robert Novak in his syndicated column announced that Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA operative and might have had some say in his being chosen for the mission. “Two senior administration officials,” Novak wrote, “told me Wilson’s wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate” what Novak called “the Italian report.”

(Recall that Bush attributed the report to British intelligence, and that some have suggested the neocon and Office of Special Plans operative Michael Ledeen, with many Italian ties, is a likely source of the original forgery.)

The somnolent mainstream press, prodded by The Nation’s David Corn, began to awaken to a potential scandal involving White House officials violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982. The CIA naturally demanded an investigation of the outing of one of its own; the Justice Department was obliged to launch a criminal probe, and Bush to appoint a special prosecutor, Patrick “Bulldog” Ferguson. And now the investigation is apparently nearing completion.

snip>
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Leupp1011.htm

[paineinthearse]

1. Nice recap but

...what is new?

:shrug:

[never cry wolf]

3. Apparently the prosecutor is new

and Bush to appoint a special prosecutor, Patrick “Bulldog” Ferguson

[On the Road]

2. The Angle Jon Stewart Took

in his brief mention of the letter was how strange and unseemly it is for a high-level insider to be connected at the roots with someone who is supposedly an independent reporter.

With all the speculation about the meaning of that paragraph, I hadn't really reflected on that until then.

[H2O Man]

4. At that time

Wilson was indeed investigating an "Italian report."

[joemurphy]

5. Um, it's Firzgerald -- not "Ferguson" n/t