I don't have an opinion on the story itself, but just wanted to say this is a very cool feature. Nicely done.

Judith Miller's role in bolstering the deceptions leading up to the war against Iraq,

plus her aiding and abetting the continued dirty operations by Bush administration high-level figures such as Libby, puts her way over the line from "journalist" to political operative.

You said, "Both before and after Wilson went public with what he'd really seen in Africa (i.e., no sign that Saddam Hussein was looking for nuclear weapons there) . .

As I understand it Wilson said that it was highly unlikely that Hussein had purchased any yellowcake from Africa. (Overlooking your absurd reference to nuclaer weapons - it was yellowcake.)

Wilson did not say that it was unlikely that Hussein was looking for it - as you claim in your article

In fact, the Nigerian official that was interviewed by Wilson admitted that he was approached by an Iraqi delegate, ostensibly on a trade mission - that the Nigerian official interpreted as a probable attempt to purchase yellowcake - as yellowcake is about the only thing Nigeria has that could be sold. The Nigerian official apparently rebuffed that approach.

Maybe I'm missing something here but almost everyone who writes about this - except Bob Somerby - either ignores or misses this point. It seems significant.

Can anyone clear this up for me?

Farhad -

You wrote "Well, first, to the relief of many at the New York Times, these accounts exonerate Miller of the most fevered speculation about her role in this case -- the idea that she was the original source of Plame's name, and that she'd passed that information on to the administration through Libby." And Further on, "Beyond that, though, Miller's actions in this case look quite unsavory."

I do not consider that because Miller did not apparently reveal Plame's identity to Libby, she is logically excluded from having provided information, relative to a scenario involving Wilson being promoted by his spouse to her superiors for the Niger trip, to someone else in the administration. Her notes on the matter should be considered compromised material - there is no reason to believe she has not altered or omitted details to obviate her own complicity. The "lost notebook" should be forensically examined to determine how long the ink has been drying.

thanks

SMN

Within minutes of the publication of Novak's column, people were talking about whether a crime had been perpetrated by someone in the president's closest circles. A CIA operative's identity was revealed and she and her contacts were potentially in jeopardy. All this for political payback. Pretty serious stuff indeed.

Yet, crackerjack investigative journalist Judy Miller "can't recall" how Ms. Wilson's name came to be found in her notes?! Please. At best, she's a terrible reporter. At worst, she's corrupted by her cozy relationships with those in power.

When you dance with devil, he turns around and bites you in the butt. Everyone in the white house is a snake, Bush, Rove, Cheney, Scooter all knew they had to get Joe Wilson for outing them with the Urianium in Niger deal and in the scandal of outing his wife. Not a pretty photo but nonetheless a great photo opportunity for Bushie, who never passes up a photo op. They are all the presidents men and they are all guilty as sin. All hat and no cattle from the get go.

It all goes back to Chalabi and the run up to the war. Judy was in bed with Chalabi and in bed with Scooter. Chalabi's intentions were to beam the drums to overthrow Hussain, feed false information to Judy, the Pentagon, Justice and Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld is jumping through firey hoops that the dumbest people in the world are buying what they are selling, amazingly enough they do believe these lying idiot morons who are no more than oddities masquerading as humans, and we go off to an illegal war. This road to folly was the costliest catastophy in the History of the United States of America. Not just one lie, but lies every day from all corners of the white house all these people were getting sucked into the war. The war in Iraq would probably never happened if not for the stenography talanets of Judy Miller provided to Scooter Libby doing her best imitation as another Bush Puppet. She should get an academy award and then promptly be fired or resign from the New York Times. The American people deserve so much more and we should get it now.

Fox News commentator within two months.

A good seduction creates its own logic. A middle aged man will buy drinks for stripper not because she is attractive, but to rent the illusion that he is attractive. The New York Times went to the champagne room with Judith Miller and she took it for all it was worth.

They knew she was no good. They had publicly apologized for her behavior once before. Yet her turn as a damsel in distress was irresistible to a Times leadership that so desperately wanted to be heroic.

She says "We have everything to be proud of and nothing to apologize for."

It would be funny, if it was not so sad.

It seems to me that Judith Miller's actions in not revealing certain facts and in grandstanding as to her sources ia nothing more than an overblown personality gone to extremes. . It is disgusting that Miller succumbed to the love of power, rather than doing her job. The prosecutor would have been miles ahead in his investigation, hadshe given him the information she possessed. Shame on the NY T imes for not being more diligent in it's inquiry of Miller.

The whole Plame affair was but a minor gambit in a well-organized propaganda campaign by the Zionists and militarists within the Pentagon and the White House to scare the public into supporting imperialist war in the Middle East. Miller was obviously involved from the start, and her articles on "WMD" in Iraq were crucial to the whole effort.

It is therefore ridiculous to pretend that her editors and Sulzberger let her run free, become a virtual Pentagon agent, and didn't bother checking her notes, all out of misplaced trust. Unless they are completely brain-dead, they knew what was going on and were themselves involved. It is clear that there was constant, direct communication from the highest echelons of the US government to Miller's superiors.

I'd wager there are some fat checks sitting in Sulzberger's Swiss bank account, cut from the Office of Special Plans.