on PLAME-GATE

this blurb from today's papers pretty much sums up all i know of the case:

The NYT off-leads, the WP fronts, and the LAT goes inside with the latest on Judith Miller's grand jury testimony. The NYT published two stories on Miller (the stories went up on the paper's Web site on Saturday)—one written by three staff writers (the off-lead) and one written by Miller herself (stuffed). As the WP and LAT note, the NYT off-lead is less than kind to Miller. According to her own paper, Miller was a "divisive newsroom figure" who many refused to work with, and who was permitted to run "amok" with littler editorial supervision. As the WP also notes, the NYT article and Miller's piece contain "conflicting accounts" of why Miller never wrote a story about the outing of CIA covert operative Valerie Plame. Miller claims she strongly recommended pursuing the story to her editor but was told not to write one. The NYT Washington bureau chief at the time said Miller made no such recommendation. When asked by another editor if she was one of six reporters who'd gotten leaked info from the White House on Plame, Miller said no. According to the NYT off-lead, by backing Miller's refusal to name her source, the paper turned the Miller case "into a cause," incurred whopping legal fees, and limited "its own ability to cover aspects of one of the biggest scandals of the day." An article on the leak by other reporters never ran, and a memo on the leak's coverage "went nowhere"—possibly to protect Miller.

As for Miller, although the words "Valerie Flame" showed up in the same notebook she used when interviewing Scooter Libby two days after Plame's husband publicly denounced the White House, Miller maintains Libby never revealed the agent's name; she doesn't recall who gave her Plame's name. Miller did testify that Libby told her Wilson's wife was an operative for Winpac—the CIA bureau for weapons intelligence, nonproliferation, and arms control.

one has to not be a mind-reader to get that this stool-pigeon for the bushites, judith miller, was a bushite herself through and through. nobody got along with her, which speaks volumes about her credibility. that the new york times turned her into a cause celeb shows just how off-track from being a beacon of freedom the grey lady has become.