Whiggate Update. Were there members of the White House Iraq Group working outside of government, undercover in the press? And is it possible that one of these outside, informal members of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) is already in jail for her key role in the fixing of intelligence and selling of the current quagmire to the American public?

from The Crisis Papers "Rove-Plame Scandal Leading to Deeper White House Horrors?" By Bernard Weiner, 19 July 2005:

"Why Judith Miller is not testifying apparently goes to the heart of Fitzgerald's case. There are reasonable grounds for wondering whether Miller might have been aiding, inadvertently or consciously, Rove and the rest of the WHIG to help move the country toward war with Iraq. For example, she may have been told by Administration officials about Plame and her CIA job, and helped spread that word to other journalists, who then contacted Rove and I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's chief of staff. Cooper over the weekend revealed that it was Libby who was the second of the 'two senior administration officials' who leaked Plame's identity.

The New York Times already has apologized for running several of Miller's pre-Iraq War stories that were based on faulty weapons-of-mass-destruction intelligence; much of that concocted intel was provided by Ahmed Chalabi, the sleazy Iraqi exile leader who hitched his wagon to the Pentagon neo-cons to get his forces back into Iraq in the wake of a U.S. invasion. Those Miller stories helped provide the imprimatur of New York Times prestige that other media outlets then picked up on, helping create a nationwide zeitgeist of imminent threat from Iraq.

Indeed, Dick Cheney squared the circle by using Miller's stories as 'evidence' that even the hallowed New York Times had determined that Iraq had, or soon would have, nuclear weapons of mass destruction. [emphasis added]

The Times owes it to the nation to go far beyond apologizing for the fact that they were hijacked by WHIGs and Chalabi to sell the Iraq War with false intelligence. It needs to fully investigate and clearly tell the story of the White House Iraq Group. Their silence on this issue is more deafening than that of others. A search of their website shows zero hits for the phrase "White House Iraq Group". I'll keep checking and let you know on the big day when they finally catch up with the Washington Post (August 2003) and Newsday (March 2004).

crossposted at True Blue Liberal

Tags:WHIG;WHIGgate;Judith Miller  ¶ 7/28/2005 02:47:00 PM