Judy’s ’security clearance’
17 October 2005 12:26 pm by Taylor Marsh
Three senior New York Times reporters close
to the internal issues surrounding Judith Miller’s ‘tell-all’ in Sunday’s
paper have told RAW STORY Miller wrote her first person story with the help
of her attorney, Bob Bennett. Bennett vetted the piece before Miller filed
it with editors to ensure Miller did not reveal anything more than what she
told the grand jury during her testimony, the journalists said. Raw
Story
You expect Bennett to vet Miller’s story, but to write it?
But that’s not the only story that’s got everyone buzzing.
Officials from the CIA, the Defense
Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon say they have no idea what New York Times
reporter Judith Miller was talking about in her published claim over the weekend
that she was given a "security clearance" when she was embedded
with a WMD military team in Iraq. According to the officials, they know of
no instance or circumstance when a reporter has been or would be granted a
security clearance for any reason, and don’t know that she was given one when
she was embedded with the U.S. Army’s 75th Exploitation Unit that was tasked
with finding Iraqi WMD immediately following the end of major conflict in
the spring of 2003. Jim
Miklaszewski
There is no way Bennett would allow Miller to lie in her piece.
So Judy obviously misled Bennett, or maybe she just took what Josh
Marshall confirms many reporters receive, which is "tactical information
that’s classified," and embellished, broadened her importance with the
claim she still had a security clearance. Aren’t intrepid reporters like Judy
supposed to be specific? What about this "pioneer
and an agent of change" and her ability, not only to parse the facts,
but to get esteemed attorneys to help her do it?
Judy’s "true tale," which was vetted by William Bennett,
has now turned into just a tale that her lawyer helped her write,
and that her security clearance didn’t exist, except in her own mind. Oh,
to be a fly on the special counsel’s wall today.
