Judy's Regret

by emptywheel

Like Jane, I don't have the stomach to watch Judy try and exonerate herself. Judy's lies--which I find so amusing in print--give me hives when I see them on teevee. So I'll leave it to Jane to describe what Judy has to say.

Besides, I'm more interested in the timing.

Why would Judy resort to admitting her regret at this time, on the Beeb? Why not Fox? Why not PBS, which has always had a love affair for Judy, even before Ken Tomlinson made it into party apparatus? Why not several weeks ago, when Judy was so busy trying to regain some credibility?

To answer the question, I'd like to go back to the Judy's involvement in David Kelly's suicide.

As you'll recall, Judy and Kelly exchanged emails (PDF) right before he died. This was Kelly's famous, "dark actors playing games" statement. As Robert George has pointed out, Judy's email was at least as interesting as Kelly's. Judy wrote on July 16:

David, I heard from another member of your fan club that things went well for you today. Hope it's true, J

George notes:

Given everything that has subsequently transpired, Miller's message to Kelly is fraught with intrigue: Hmmm..."fan club"? From which side of the Atlantic was that "fan club" member? Who was it? Keep in mind the context: Kelly’s testimony was vital to the Blair government’s assertion that BBC reporter Gilligan had overstated the information Kelly had given him. So, what does "things went well"mean in Miller's context?

Good question--what member of Kelly's fan club had Judy been talking to while the Bush Administration was busy outing Valerie Plame?

I'm not suggesting that someone from Blair's government was part of the Plame leak. I am suggesting that Judy was deeply in bed on both sides of the Atlantic.

So to return to my earlier question--why would Judy pick this time to go on the Beeb and play regretful?

Well, as much trouble as Bush is in on the war, he so far seems to have prevented any inquiries directly into the role his government played in lying our nation into war. Blair, however, may finally be facing that Labour revolt that could do him in:

A renewed attempt to impeach Blair over claims he misled parlia ment in making his case for war against Iraq, will be made in the Commons within the next two weeks.

The impeachment process effectively stalled last year when just 23 MPs signed a Commons motion. But the scale of the government’s defeat on its anti-terror legislation last week – where 49 Labour MPs rebelled – has galvanised the momentum for proceedings to be invoked.

Organisers say they are expecting 200 cross-party signatures, including those of former government ministers, to force the Commons to set up a Privy Council investigation that would examine in detail the case for impeachment against Blair.

Add in Blair's ham-handed treatment of the Al Jazeera memo, and he's in some deep trouble.

Now, I doubt there's a member of Bush's government that could help. Any help from Bush would only reflect poorly on Blair's alliance with Bush in the first place. But Judy Miller, honorary member of the Bush Administration. She can go on the Beeb and insist that the problem was the intelligence, not the use of the intelligence.

I don't know if the Brits find her any more convincing than we do. But Blair is increasingly desperate. So maybe he's borrowing Bush's shills to try to help dig himself out, once again.

Comments

[umzuzu]

Call me crazy, but it sounds like she was bullying him.

[emptywheel]

Judy bullying Kelly? Yeah, probably in her saccharine way. As in:

Tony: Judy, do you think you could talk to your buddy Kelly and help him understand that the his comment to the Beeb was inaccurate?

Judy: Um, sure, anything you want, Ton.

Tony: But don't mention you spoke with me.

Judy: You know I always protect my GOOD sources, Ton.

Yeah, I'd buy that. After all, the email suggests she spoke to Kelly once already, if they already had some kind of mutual idea of what "going well" would mean. THAT's the email that's probably pretty interesting.

[Pachacutec]

Well, if Fitz brings Judy to her knees, at least she will find the position familiar. . .

[umzuzu]

I've always suspected a more proactive role for the journalists (although I'll give up my theory of Pincus as mastermind ;)), ie did Judy necessarily need to be told to pressure Kelly? The last thread showed that Cooper was no innocent bystander either. The timing of his War on Wilson - right in the thick of things with the outing of Plame and the Kelly testimony - makes more sense if he was the clean up crew on the disintegrating Brewster Jennings outing...

[nerosviolin]

"I think it’s a…it’s a terrible failure. It’s a shocking failure. It’s a deeply troubling failure"

[antiaristo]

Can you not see the sinister nature of what's at work here?
He talks about "dark actors playing games" to one of those very persons, the dark actors.
He's dead 24 hours later.

And just to be clear. Blair threaded TWO loopholes which permitted Kelly's death to be recorded as suicide WITHOUT ANY WITNESS GIVING EVIDENCE UNDER OATH.

[ArtShu]

What else is Judy hiding? Besides WMD lies, she opened a bogus anthrax letter (2 days before her book on !!! GERM WARFARE !!! was reviewed in the NYT).

A more significant and mysterious connection is the pre-9/11 terror threat report Judy Miller got just prior to the President's Daily Briefing of Aug 6, 2001. She has never commented on this!!!

WHO THE HELL TOLD JUDY MILLER ABOUT THE 9/11 ATTACKS BEFORE THEY HAPPENED?

Libby?
Rove?
Cheney?
Hadley?
Card?
Chalabi?

See this link: http://www.cjr.org/issues/2005/5/judycode.asp

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.

[umzuzu]

Check out these thoughts on Judy's Aspen Grand Strategy paper on "Counterproliferation After Iraq" from July 2003.
http://blog.ltc.arizona.edu/beyondmes/2005/10/some_thoughts_on_countering_wm.html

[praktike]

that giant woman in the new Harry Potter is a dead ringer for Judy.

[Garrett]

July 17, 2003. Matthew Cooper writes in Time, "Some government officials have noted to TIME in interviews..." Interviews to which reporters at Time, Mr. Cooper? He wasn't saying.

July 21, 2003. Judith Miller writes in the New York Times, that just before his death, David Kelly sent an email to a reporter at the New York Times. Emails to which reporter at the New York Times, Ms. Miller? She wasn't saying.

Was there one of those confidentialty things, that Matthew Cooper couldn't tell you he was writing about himself? No.

Was there one of those confidentialty things, that Judith Miller couldn't tell you she was writing about herself? No.