The book of Judith

Some have asked for my take on the Judith Miller tale. Truth is, I'm still not sure what to make of it. Xymphora sums up the basic conundrum as well as it ever has been summed up:

The Judith Miller case doesn't make any more sense than it ever did. She spent 85 days in jail to avoid doing what she has now apparently agreed to do, rat out Scooter Libby. Libby could have given her the unconditional specific waiver she claims to have required at any time, but didn't. Or rather, he claims he gave it over a year ago, and subsequently, but she didn't accept it. Libby's lawyer, laying it on awfully thick, said (my emphasis):

"We told her lawyers it was not coerced. We are surprised to learn we had anything to do with her incarceration."

Surprised? Only in the same sense that Claude Rains was shocked to discover gambling at Rick's. Scooter was fingered long before Judy entered the big house.

I've long been suspcicious about the "non specific" release Miller received from her source -- that is, from Scooter. Virtually any other reporter in any previous case would have viewed such a release as a green light, especially after a source tried to steer a reporter down a false trail. Yet Miller, quite inexplicably, viewed her green light as a stop sign. She insisted on a more "specific" waiver. And just what, specifically, does "specific" mean in this context? You got me!

Here's one possible scenario. Consider it fanciful if you will, but at least consider it:

Let us suppose that, before Judy went to jail, she met with a representative from Cheney's office. She was told that she would receive, pro forma, a confidentiality waiver, in order to save Scooter's ass if the truth of the matter should come out. Despite this waiver, she was instructed to keep mum nonetheless. "Keep silent and we'll reward you. Talk and we'll kill you."

That noir-ish image may strike many readers as a little too simplisitic, a little too Mario Puzo. But it does have the virtue of clearing up a few mysteries.

As for her recent turnabout, Xymphora's suggestion makes as much sense as anything else I've read:

It appears likely that the real story is that Fitzgerald finally had enough on Libby to go after him without Miller, so it was no longer necessary for Miller to keep her mouth shut as Libby was finished anyway. The fan dance about the waiver is a trick to hide the truth.

I don't see how Fitzgerald can leave it at Scooter while keeping Cheney untouched.

A correspondent has suggested to me that Cheney may be planning his retirement -- hence his recent shopping-for-expensive-real-estate excursion in Maryland. I wish. But don't hold your breath -- if Cheney goes, who will run the government?

Still, a Maryland manor is precisely where the disgraced Agnew ended up. Wouldn't it be a kick to watch history repeat itself?

Wayne Madsen makes another kicky suggestion:

One possible explanation for the sudden turn of events regarding Miller and Libby is that Fitzgerald may have also "flipped" Libby as a witness. A promise of limited immunity to Libby would have cleared the way for testimony from Miller on what she discussed with Cheney's chief of staff. That means the ultimate target of Fitzgerald could be Cheney.

A cute idea, but I don't think Scooter has agreed to squeal.

Arianna Huffington, who has been covering this story well, draws our attention to the recently-published "love letters" from Libby to Miller -- and lo and behold, the Iran nuke contorversy comes front and center. Herrrrre's Scooter:

Your reporting, and you, are missed. Like many Americans, I admire your principled stand. But, like many of your friends and readers, I would welcome you back among the rest of us, doing what you do best – reporting.

You went into jail in the summer. It is fall now. You will have stories to cover – Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program. Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work – and life. Until then, you will remain in my thoughts and prayers

"They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them"? Weird shit. Gotta be a code of some sort.

The obvious message: If Miller wants to come back "to life" (heh heh heh), she has to lie about Iran as effectively as she lied about Iraq. Scooter apparently feels that Miller's 85-day "ordeal" has given her new credibility -- indeed, recredibilizing Judy may have been the very purpose of her incarceration from the very beginning.

And thus Plame-gate dovetails into what I have dubbed the Most Important Story of Our Time.