Judith Miller to name Scooter Libby

By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer 58 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - New York Times reporter Judith Miller appeared for testimony before a federal grand jury Friday, throwing a spotlight once again on the White House role in the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity.

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Freed after 85 days in a federal detention center, Miller arrived at about 8:30 a.m. at the federal courthouse to testify for Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation about her conversations in July 2003 with Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Miller said in a statement that her source ?- identified by the Times as Libby ?- had released her from her promise of confidentially.

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"My source has now voluntarily and personally released me from my promise of confidentiality regarding our conversations relating to the Wilson-Plame matter," Miller said in a statement Thursday. Her newspaper identified Libby as the source, saying that Miller and Libby spoke in person on July 8, 2003, then talked by phone later that week.

Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said that "as we have throughout this ordeal, we continue to support Judy Miller in the decision she has made. We are very pleased that she has finally received a direct and uncoerced waiver, both by phone and in writing, releasing her from any claim of confidentiality and enabling her to testify."

White House aides signed waivers earlier in the probe, but Miller wanted and received personal assurances that her source's waiver was voluntary. Libby's lawyer, Joseph Tate, did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Fitzgerald said he plans to wrap up his operation in October.

Has anyone heard when he plans to release his report?

I'm not surprised Miller fingered Libby. He was at the top of my list of suspects.

I have no respect for Miller and her cohorts.

BBB

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'Why didn't someone call us?'

Tate [Libby's attorney] said Libby signed a waiver of confidentiality more than a year ago, which Tate followed with a phone call to New York Times attorney Floyd Abrams assuring him that Libby's waiver was voluntary.

Over the Labor Day weekend, Miller's attorney, Robert Bennett, tracked Tate down in Martha's Vineyard to tell him she had not accepted the waiver as valid because "it came from lawyers."

"I assured Bennett that it was voluntary, and he asked, 'Would Scooter say that to Judy?' And I said, 'Scooter doesn't want to see Judy in jail,'" Tate said.

"My reaction was, why didn't someone call us 80 days ago?" he said of his conversation with Bennett.

After receiving assurance from Fitzgerald that a call between Libby and Miller would not be obstructing justice, the call was set up by Bennett and both attorneys listened in, Tate said.

"Scooter said to her, 'Judy, Joe Tate talked to Floyd Abrams more than a year ago and said it's voluntary. Joe assured me you understood,'" Tate recalled from the conversation. "'But we want you to know the waiver was voluntary.'"

Tate said Miller responded that she and Abrams had discussed it but that she was not willing to "rely on lawyers."

Libby said, "Well, why didn't someone call us?" Tate said. "There was no answer."

Tate told CNN Libby testified before a grand jury about his "conversations with Judy Miller and everyone else," appearing two or three times in 2003 and 2004. But he said he has not gone before the grand jury since, and until called by Bennett in early September had not been contacted by anyone in connection with the case in more than a year. Tate said he has no reason to believe Libby is a target of the investigation.

Libby testified he talked about the Plame matter with a few reporters, including Miller and Time magazine's Matt Cooper as well as two Washington Post reporters, Glenn Kessler and Walter Pincus. He said he had assured Kessler and Pincus' attorney that Libby's waiver of confidentiality was voluntary. "To me, that was the end of the story," Tate said.

He said he and Libby assumed Miller was jailed for protecting another source or for another unknown reason, and said he did not know why it took 10 days to release Miller following her conversation with Libby.

The fact that the NY Times was publishing her stories on the front page day after day was a factor in making the war happen. After all, if the Times says there are WMDs, then there must be.

Quote:

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'Why didn't someone call us?'

Tate [Libby's attorney] said Libby signed a waiver of confidentiality more than a year ago, which Tate followed with a phone call to New York Times attorney Floyd Abrams assuring him that Libby's waiver was voluntary.

SOURCE

D'artagnan WROTE

Quote:

The fact that the NY Times was publishing her stories on the front page day after day was a factor in making the war happen. After all, if the Times says there are WMDs, then there must be.

The stories in the NY Times facilitated the war. Are you kidding. Remember Bush doesn't read the papers.