CONTRIBUTORS
LINKS
OK, for a start, there really is no "Judith Miller and me," at least in the sense that I'd invite her to my birthday party. But I have talked to her on the phone a few times. For a time, our lives were remotely in each other's gravity, drawn together by a pseudo-journalist -- indeed, a model for what Miller has become -- named Steven Emerson.
I don't like what Miller represents in journalism. She is not, to my mind, a journalist. She forfeited that claim when she became a conduit of propaganda for the neo-conservative cabal that has its bloody hands on the control levers of the nation. She had become a shill for the Bush administration; her employment at the New York Times was merely a cover.
Miller's 85 days in jail elicit no sympathy from me. She was made to appear a martyr for "protecting sources," a cynical attempt to repair her slime-adorned reputation after she contributed to the serial misleading of America on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The reality behind her jailing is that she was merely carrying water for the Bush administration in its (likely criminal) efforts to punish former Ambassador Joe Wilson, who had exposed one of George Bush's chief fabrications in support of invading Iraq, the tale that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium from Niger. Revenge was exacted by the Bushies in the form of outing Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA operative.
Miller first surfaced on my radar about a decade ago. Her close confederate was Emerson. Both had been engaged in a furious campaign attacking virtually every Arab and Muslim voice in America. Emerson -- who also at various times claimed to be a journalist -- lost his foothold as a commentator among most responsible media, especially after he tried to pin the Oklahoma City bombing on Muslims.
Emerson's most noteworthy crusade has been against Tampa professor Sami Al-Arian. Emerson and an ally at the Tampa Tribune were relentless. I eventually exposed many of Emerson's and the Trib's distortions and exaggerations. More important, the top FBI counterterrorism chief told me Al-Arian had not committed any federal crimes, and the lead federal prosecutor in the case also said there was no evidence to prosecute.
My heavily documented revelations about Emerson provoked him to retaliate via a lawsuit. We spent four years litigating with Emerson, and finally prevailed in both federal and state courts. The final blow to his case came when we obtained an order compelling him to show proof of his allegations. He wouldn't -- couldn't? -- and ran away.
During the litigation, one of the most interesting insights that I gleaned were reports of meetings held that involved Miller, Emerson, arch-Islamaphobe Daniel Pipes -- and a number of other people we now call "neo-cons." All of these people had strong ties to the right-wing Likud party in Israel. Heck, Miller had even sat in on Israeli "interrogation" sessions of Palestinians; and Emerson provided beds in his Washington apartment to Likud spooks who slipped into the United States to try and undermine peace negotiations.
Prior to 9/11, the Tampa federal probe of Al-Arian had stalled. This was unacceptable to the neo-cons and their Likudnik allies; Al-Arian was arguably the most prominent advocate for Palestinians in America, and had gained audiences with many Congressmen and even the White House (George Bush welcomed him in a 2000 campaign photograph). Thus, Israel conjured up "intelligence" -- not actual documents and information that could be vetted and responded to by Al-Arian, but shadowy insinuations much like Miller's WMD claims. Miller, in fact, was one of the water-carriers for the Israeli "intelligence."
The essence of the work of people such as Miller and Emerson is to blur the distinctions among Arabs. Palestinians have adopted horribly reprehensible and self-defeating tactics, but they are nonetheless an indisputably oppressed people. The tactic is to equate Palestinians, with their justifiable claims to nationhood, with the criminal madmen of Al-Qaida. It's an effective technique. And it's clearly the party line from Likud.
The new "intelligence," thanks to Miller and the Tribune, led to Al-Arian's indictment. His trial is drawing to a close. The government has repeatedly been caught prevaricating -- including claiming Israeli intelligence wasn't involved in the prosecution, only to be exposed by an Israeli newspaper, Ha'aretz (and me).
Without doubt, Al-Arian had secrets, including participation with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. But that involvement appears to have been during a period when it was legal, and the government has had a hard time showing that Al-Arian actually did anything illegal.
But justice was never the purpose of the trial -- or of the work by Miller and Emerson. Reading the latest about Miller wasn't a surprise. I'd seen it before in her alliance with Emerson and her catering to the neo-cons behind the Al-Arian prosecution. She's not a journalist. She's a convenient tool for some very bad people.
For more on Judith Miller, go to johnsugg.com. John F. Sugg is senior editor of the Creative Loafing/Weekly Planet newspapers.
