Jim Miklaszewski: Judy didn't have security clearance

[Halliburton]

<snip>
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.

Normally it takes at least three months of background checks, etc. before anyone is granted a "SECRET" clearance. There are cases where someone is granted a temporary short-term clearance, for a day, for example, but that is usually extended only to military, DOD or civilian contractors who need to be cleared for specific information on a specific project. Miller had indicated she thought her "security clearance" may still have been in effect during a meeting with Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff Scooter Libby after she had returned to Washington.

While embedded reporters are often granted access to classified briefings on the grounds that the information can not be reported, Pentagon officials say no military commander or officer has the individual authority to grant a security clearance.

Pentagon officials say they are continuing to check whether Miller had been granted a security clearance of any kind.
<snip>

http://dailynightly.msnbc.com/2005/10/judith_millers_.html#below-fold

someone's lying. :popcorn:

[shraby]

1. Fitz probably already knew she didn't

when he asked her about it...perjury charge for Judy.

[Jack_Dawson]

2. Props for spelling Mik's name

:beer:

[IChing]

3. What? She could be lying again or is the administration lying again?

I'm so confused on who is lying and then lying about the lie.

[texpatriot2004]

4. Dupe. Here is the previous DU thread on this topic.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1856164

[Walt Starr]

5. There's a perjury charge for the rightwing little so and so n/t

[savemefromdumbya]

6. this is curious and worrisome

thought her "security clearance" may still have been in effect - this is very worrisome.

[Catrina]

7. I read that Rumsfeld

signed her security clearance!

I have read that several times, but it's only become an issue since she told Fitzgerald about it, it seems.

The Pentagon officials might want to talk to Rumsfeld. Or better yet, maybe Fitzgerald should get Rummie under oath, and ask him about it!

I am certain I read that Rumsfeld was the one who gave her Security Clearance though.

[LibertyLou]

29. Then Rumsfeld is finished?...Remember CIA's Deutch & the laptop? (more)

Dismissed over the POTENTIAL breach of classified information on the laptop...

This is ACTUAL leak...to someone unauthorized to receive classified intel..that ACTUALLY harmed national security, compromised operation, resulted in the deaths of agent(s)/arrests of assets, etc.

This isn't a leak, this is espionage.

[mom cat]

34. I saw it too.

[NNN0LHI]

8. Now that is interesting n/t

[Neil Lisst]

9. I wonder what she had to do for Libby to give her a clearance

Her "clearance" apparently was either imaginary or illusory.

[shraby]

10. Isn't it a truism that a prosecutor doesn't ask

a question he doesn't know the answer to? Judith Miller is toast!

[Tatiana]

11. We already knew that was one of many lies Judy has told.

<snip>

National-security reporters—none of whom have clearances—receive classified information for a living. If the government used espionage law to investigate government leaks to the press, the effect would be an unofficial secrets act criminalizing thousands, if not tens of thousands, of annual conversations between sources and reporters.

http://www.slate.com/id/2127824/?nav=fix

And here's Jay Rosen's speculation from his 10/15 weblog:

<snip>

I say it’s either 1.) a big nothing—Miller’s exagerrated description of clearances other embedded reporters had during the war, a kind of puffing up—or 2.) a very big deal if she had “special” clearances post-embed that came into play during her talks with Libby. Reporters I have talked to said that would be shocking and troubling, if true. 1) seems more likely, 2.) would explain a lot.

http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/

[cassiepriam]

12. But why would she have a clearance POST embed?

Or do they mean that is just an excuse to get her off the hook?

PS It is getting harder and harder to keep all the BS and lies straight.

[Tatiana]

13. It's an excuse to get both Libby and Miller off the hook.

If Miller had security clearances post-embed, then Libby wouldn't have been passing on classified information to someone not authorized to receive it.

Judy just invented that as a cover for Libby. However there would be no logical reasons for her to have any security clearances period.

[cassiepriam]

15. OK, that is what I thought. But it is really lame.

I am beginning to think Judy is just blowing smoke to buy herself some time. Til Fitz can get her into a witness protection program somewhere.

[ourbluenation]

14. the freeptards have a theory...Judy is a CIA agent...

I shit you not!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1503742/posts

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. Not CIA

she was a member of Rummie's inner circle and a mouth piece for the OSP guys.

There is no reason in the world why a journalist should have any security clearance and if someone high up gave it to her, they will be in serious trouble too.

[Fleshdancer]

17. oh. my. god.

Riiiight. Judy was a CIA agent just like Valarie "Flame" and went to jail for 85 days to cover someone's ass for outing a female CIA agent? Damn those catty female CIA agents - complying in the outing of one another. :eyes: This is beyond idiotic.

[EVDebs]

24. CIA isn't supposed to operate Domestically...but does illegally n/t

[NNN0LHI]

18. They think one CIA agent outed another CIA agent?

And Fitzgerald locked up a CIA agent for 85 days? Whats them boys smoking over there I wonder?

Don

[EVDebs]

26. Think. Compartmentalized operations and Illegal Domestic Operations

Operation Mockingbird is an illegal CIA media-manipulation project that was outted in the '70s. Nowadays you have an alphabet soup of acronymed intelligence agencies. But it all leads back to the controlling authority. Who would want such a project especially in the buildup to war ?

Go back further to CNN and PsyOps www.counterpunch.org/cnnpsyops.html

Why do that in the newsroom ? Control.

[mattclearing]

21. I've wondered about that before.

It would explain the drum-beat for Iraq, the security clearance issue, etc.

More likely though is what someone above said about being a mouthpiece for the Defense Policy group. They were trying to supplant the CIA with alternative findings more helpful to their goals.

[EVDebs]

23. Under Operation Mockingbird, the CIAs domestic media manipulation

project, and hence illegal operation, the Freepers had it right at the very end of the blog:

"If Ms. Miller agreed to operate under a security clearance without the knowledge or approval of Times managers, she should be disciplined or even dismissed. If she had their approval, all involved should be ashamed."

If the Financial Times' article is correct

CIA leak probe 'widening to include use of intelligence'
By Caroline Daniel and Edward Alden in Washington
Published: October 17 2005
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/ff92e968-3f4b-11da-932f-00000e2511c8.html

and eventually links up with former FT author Alan Friedman's book Spider's Web: How The White House Illegally Armed Iraq, then you have the basis for not only indictments for the Plame leaks but the basis for EXPOSING how the War Powers Act of 1973 was violated, with false 'circumstances' and 'situations' given to Congress in order to expose US troops to hostilities.

[Ellen Forradalom]

32. Oh yes, she's this CIA chick

[Clark2008]

19. Not to bust any bubbles, but it's only perjury if she testified to it.

Merely writing that she had security clearance isn't perjury unless Fitz asked the question.

Just saying...

[MellowOne]

20. What a spider's web

when it all unravels this will be huge.

[Justice Is Comin]

22. Rumsfeld and Libby

put her in Iraq to find the weapons they were fixin' to plant.

She had a clearance. High access to high places. I'd bet on it. Who would ever know? Even the Pentagon is "continuing to check."

She had one. They needed her there to validate the phony weapons stew they were about to serve up to America.

Only they lost the beef. :rofl:

[Tom Joad]

25. I think the NY Times should do the right thing and close up shop.

It has no redeeming social or political value. Turn their building into a museum for those who are interested in the history of government propaganda. Let it be a warning on how we can be deceived by powerful interests.

[lovuian]

27. She maybe a double agent just like Chalibi!!!

and who is her boss???

[AndyTiedye]

28. It's a Double-Secret Clearance

Its existence is secret from everyone.

[Beetwasher]

30. Did Someone From OSP or WHIG Give Her Clearance of Some Sort????

Oh baby, this could be a real wedge to crack something wide open!

Was she given clearance by the WH??? Was she told she had clearance so they could share info with her, but she didn't really have clearance? Did she LIE about having clearance???

Man oh Manishewitz!

[Cha]

31. So she lied?

How many times exactly has judy miller lied? In the nyt and on tv?

[Peace Patriot]

33. Look, I read here at DU, some time ago, in posts that sounded like they

knew what they were talking about, that Judith Miller had a special "embed" contract signed by Donald Rumsfeld (or that he signed off on--okayed--I've read both), and that this granted her some sort of special status in Iraq, where she was most definitely (according to commanders on the ground) throwing her weight around.

Does anybody know the source of this information (the special "embed" contract)? I seem to recall it was Miller herself.

And what would be the relatioship be between this "embed" contract and a security clearance?

Truly, I can imagine an ad hoc thing, done by Rumsfeld, to get Ms. WMD onto the WMD-finding team in Iraq--to "hunt" for all those WMDs that they all knew weren't there. A slurred, blurred, half contract, half security clearance sort of thing, to get her in place, so she would get "the scoop" of a lifetime when those WMDs that they all knew weren't there were "found," as her reward for being so helpful to the regime.

I just wonder if anybody has this tracked backed to its origin.

And how on earth some sort of security clearance in Iraq, re the "hunt" for WMDs, would entitle her to receive the information of a covert CIA agent's identity, is beyond me. She was NOT a member of the government. She had no job description, no position, no salary that we know of, no credentials for receipt of such information, no position of authority, no background or experience in gov't service, nothing, absolutely nothing that would qualify her for such information.

One other thought I had about Rumsfeld and Miller, and why nobody at the Pentagon or in gov't can find this security clearance. It may be that she could not withstand the background check required for a normal security clearance, that they couldn't afford any objective party checking into her creds or her connections, and that's why Rumsfeld had to grant it (or sign it, or sign off on it).

I've been wondering about Rumsfeld anyway--hardly a whisper about him in connection with GJ investigation, until now. Lurking in the background with that scowl on his face, and those rimless glasses. Rumsfeld. Hm-m-m.