"The Judy Code," CJR Web Special

[pat_k]

Apologies if this was already posted.

http://www.cjr.org/issues/2005/6/judycode.asp

The Judy Code
by Douglas McCollam

In July of 2001, Steve Engelberg, then an editor at The New York Times, looked up to see Judy Miller standing at his desk. As Engelberg recalls, Miller had just learned from a source about an intercepted communication between two Al Qaeda members who were discussing how disappointed they were that the United States had never attempted to retaliate for the bombing of the USS Cole. Not to worry, one of them said, soon they were going to do something so big that the U.S. would have to retaliate.

Miller was naturally excited about the scoop and wanted the Times to go with the story. Engelberg, himself a veteran intelligence reporter, wasn’t so sure. There had been a lot of chatter about potential attacks; how did they know this was anything other than big talk? Who were these guys? What country were they in? How had we gotten the intercept? Miller didn’t have any answers and Engelberg didn’t think they could publish without more context. Miller agreed to try and find out more, but in the end the story never ran....

A point people never seem to make is that acts of terror are intended to elicit atrocious behavior from the target. The more extreme the response, the more useful. The intercepted communication reported to Miller so clearly illustrates this point, it may have been one of the few valid bits of information put into her hands. Perhaps if the story had run, people would have understood brutal retailition is precisely what they wanted -- and precisely what we must not do. We played into their hands with a criminal invasion when we could have shown ourselves to be strong, but just, by working with international law enforcement and military personnel to vigorously pursue the criminals and bring them to justice.

...
In analyzing Miller’s account, several themes emerge. First, with Fitzgerald clearly probing Vice President Cheney's office, the administration would obviously have a concern that Miller's notes might cause problems. But in her account in the Times Miller goes out of her way to stress that Libby protected Cheney at all times. This is key. While there seems little doubt that Libby would fall on his sword to protect his boss, a reporter is an altogether different matter. Miller's account clearly signals that her notes don't give Fitzgerald an avenue of attack on Cheney....

...
But Miller’s sources weren't just wrong, they spun her dizzy...Sunday’s story in the Times gave Miller the perfect opportunity to express some kind of contrition over her part in this journalistic fiasco. She chose not to and that’s a shame. Maybe there is something else Miller should know about those aspen trees out west, something Scooter Libby neglected to mention. Because their roots are connected they don’t just turn together, they often burn together from fire that can travel out of sight and underground until it erupts into the light of day.