OK, it’s been a while since I’ve said anything about the investigation to find the traitor(s) who revealed Valerie Plame’s identity as a CIA agent. For the most part though, the news of the last month has been a fairly confusing swirl of rumors, so I guess there’s not much to add to that.
Today the New York Times published two notable articles that deserve some reading:
The Miller Case: A Notebook, a Cause, a Jail Cell and a Deal
My Four Hours Testifying in the Federal Grand Jury Room
The first is the Times’ account of what was going on internally at the paper while they were simultaneously trying to prop Miller up as a martyr to press freedom and also trying to contain newsroom resentment that Miller had screwed over their reputation on WMDs. The second is Miller’s own account of her grand jury testimony. While the first article soft-pedals the account a bit, there’s still plenty for the Times to be embarrassed about.
The most glaringly obvious problem with Miller’s account is that on the one hand she claimed that she only had one source to her information about Plame: Scooter Libby. Her deal with the prosecutor to only testify about conversations with Libby was reportedly based on that claim. But then later she claims that an early reference to Valerie Flame (sic) in her notes was not from conversations with Libby. And then on top of that she pulls a Reaganesque defense that she forgot who the source was for those notes, but she’s really really pretty sure it wasn’t Libby.
In any case it is quite a discrepancy to go from one source to two sources, even if she doesn’t remember who the other one was.
Cal me a cynic. I think nothing is going to happen to the crooks in the white house and pentagon. They will get away with it. By this time in 1973 the watergate hearings were going along nicely. There is, comparatively, nothing to see here.
(http://livejournal.com/users/thaths)
Oh, I’m pretty cynical too. This scandal wasn’t even being covered in the mass media very well until well after it was a big deal to bloggers. At least now it is getting the attention it deserves, and Bush’s approval rating is sinking like a rock, and DeLay and Frist are getting grilled over other alleged misdeeds. There’s a good chance of some Republicans breaking ranks with mid-term elections coming next year. I’m just hoping the Democrats find a spine and a coherent platform by then, or at least by the 2008 elections.
As for this particular scandal, the prosecuter has until end of next week to decide to drop it, bring indictments or extend the grand jury.
(http://livejournal.com/users/jlick)