Now, consider that:
a. Judith Miller is a Washington-based reporter for the NYTimes, who specializes in WMD.
Another consideration on Miller I'd like to suggest may be linked:
BBC reporter who claimed "sexed" up Intelligence accused of changing his story.
The BBC journalist who claimed that Alastair Campbell had "sexed up" intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction was tonight accused of changing his evidence by MPs. Andrew Gilligan, the defence correspondent on Radio 4's Today programme, was described as an "unsatisfactory witness" by the Commons foreign affairs select committee following his second appearance before it today.
He had been recalled to give further evidence after a senior Ministry of Defence official, Dr David Kelly, denied suggestions that he was the possible source of Gilligan's story.
"Kelly's last cry for help: I'm haunted by 'many dark actors playing games'", July 20, 2003
A former Labour minister called for Mr Blair to resign, as the mystery of Dr Kelly's death deepened, with the revelation that he sent friends emails hours before his death, talking of being haunted by "many dark actors playing games". Dr Kelly's claim, sent to Judith Miller, a New York Times reporter, is certain to be key evidence in the judicial inquiry into the affair - announced by Mr Blair - to be chaired by Lord Hutton, a law lord.
In fact, Judith Miller apparently knew David Kelly rather well. She had quoted him in several of her earlier articles going back to 1998, and according to the Globe article referenced above, Kelly had helped her write her book about Weapons of Mass Destruction published several years before.
Piasa, I'm relating this to the timeline on July 2003 you posted last night in Posts 179 and 204 here:
Byron York: There's a lot we don't know yet about the CIA flap
It was 11:07 on a Friday morning, July 11, 2003, and Time magazine correspondent Matt Cooper was tapping out an e-mail to his bureau chief, Michael Duffy. "Subject: Rove/P&C," (for personal and confidential), Cooper began....
It was July 9, 2003, less than 48 hrs after the bogus "CIA agent T J Wilkinson" popped up as a named source in a Capital Hill Blue article that, through a Truthout.org submission to "Japan Today," propelled the Wilson story back into the lime light and into the MSM when CNN picked up the scent of the disredited story, edited it, and ran with it.
July 9 was the date that Greg Thielman came out with his rant against colin Powell and Bush.
Remember this apology from CHB on that TJ Wilkinson story?
"Recently, this web site [Capitol Hill Blue] discovered it has been played as a sucker by a source that was used in seven stories that ran in Capitol Hill Blue from September 2002 until July of 2003. The person in question was quoted as an unnamed source in six of the seven articles and by name (Terrance J. Wilkinson) in the seventh. We later learned the name was bogus even though I had known (or thought I knew) the person by that name for more than 20 years.
"We have turned all our information on this source over to the appropriate law enforcement agencies and, at their instruction, will not discuss the matter publicly until they have concluded their investigations. When those investigations are complete, we will publish a full accounting with every piece of detail that we can produce or uncover about the individual involved. We owe that to our readers....
"...But we live in a different era now. Technology makes it easier for people to pull together enough information to create a story that sounds credible on the surface but still have hidden agendas underneath.
"Many journalists have told me they cannot do their job without unnamed sources. I used to agree with them but events of this past week have caused me to rethink that philosophy."
---- - "A message from Capitol Hill Blue. . .No more "unnamed sources," DOUG THOMPSON, Jul 10, 2003, 11:51
Note that under the same law that pertains to the alleged outing of Plame, this T J wilkinson tale would also require investigation since the guy was claiming to be CIA.
Hmmm, what else occurred on July 11, 2003 while Cooper was jotting down his email to his bureau chief? Was it something in the UK like this, where a reporter by the name of Watts tells her bosses at the BBC she can't go along with their request for her to back up the BBC's correspondent Gilligan's claims about what the late wmd expert Dr. Kelly told him?:
JULY 11, 2003 : (UK : NEWSNIGHT SCIENCE EDITOR WATT'S LAWYER WRITES THE BBC TELLING THEM THAT WATTS WAS PREPARED TO COOPERATE WITH THE BBC ONLY IN LINE WITH HER DUTIES AS AN EMPLOYEE, BUT NOT IF IT MEANS VIOLATING HER ETHICS AND RESPONSIBILITIES AS A JOURNALIST : See HUTTON INQUIRY ) Documents released by the [Hutton] inquiry show that Fiona Campbell, of Finers Stephens Innocent, wrote to the BBC on 11 July saying that Watts was prepared to cooperate only in line with her duties as an employee. 'Such duties, however, do not extend to "co-operating" where her ethics and responsibilities might conflict or in circumstances where she is being asked to participate in statements with which she cannot agree.' - "Email kept from BBC board; said that Gilligan had been guilty of 'loose use of language'," by Kamal Ahmed and Martin Bright, UK observer, 08/17/03 and "Email kept from BBC board : · Governors split over 'dumbing down' of Today programme · Gilligan accused of being 'too distant' from colleagues ," by Kamal Ahmed and Martin Bright, The Observer, Sunday August 17, 2003
SNIP
JULY 17, 2003 3PM : (UK : DAVID KELLY IS MISSING AFTER TELLING HIS WIFE HE WAS GOING FOR A WALK) - "Man named as BBC source reported missing," by Ciar Byrne, The Guardian UK, Friday July 18, 2003 Speaking of July 17, 2003 ... who leaked the copies of the Niger docs that were in IAEA hands to the Italian paper and are the copies really accurate copies? Someone at State? Or CIA? The French? Or ?
JULY 17, 2003 : (TIME MAGAZINE JULY 21 STORY BY MATTHEW COOPER APPEARS ON TIME'S WEBSITE; )-- "Reporters Subpoenaed in CIA Leak," By Susan Schmidt, Washington Post Staff Writer, Saturday, May 22, 2004; Page A11, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46823-2004May21.html
JULY 17, 2003 : (THE IAEA HAS STILL NOT RELEASED THE FORGED NIGER DOCUMENTS, THOUGH THE ITALIAN LEFTWING PAPER LA REPUBBLICA CLAIMS IT HAS OBTAINED THEM THROUGH A LEAK - * PRESUMABLY COPIES OF THEM, ANYWAY) The forged documents were passed in February this year by the US to the IAEA, which a month later declared them to be forgeries. The IAEA has not released the documents. But it is understood the documents are the same as those leaked to La Repubblica. The paper [left-of-centre daily La Repubblica] claimed the forged documents were passed to British intelligence in Rome and their contents given to the CIA. -- "Iraq uranium forgeries crudely done, newspaper reveals," By Sophie Arie, Rome, The Guardian, July 18 2003 via TheAge.com.au, http://www.theage.com.au/cgi-bin/common/popupPrintArticle.pl?path=/articles/2003/07/17/1058035132835.html
What suspicious serendipity.
One might even suspect it was being choreographed...