Fox News hires reporter who got jailed for not revealing the source who identified the CIA agent whose husband got angry at Bush for blowing her cover (the wife's, not the reporter's). But it's all OK now

This is a little difficult to explain. But, in the weirdly wondrous world of Washington, it all seems to make sense.

Do you remember that female CIA agent (we'll call her Veronica -- not her real name; her real name is Valerie) who had a prominent husband sent to Africa by the White House to investigate Saddam Hussein's attempt to get uranium for the Bomb but later he wrote an op-ed article opposing the Iraq war and his wife's alleged cover got blown in print allegedly because the White House was angry at him?

And the couple was so concerned about their secret identity that he wrote a book and did a lot of media publicity selling it and they both posed for photos for a big shishy magazine in a convertible driving past the White House?

And there was a veteran columnist who'd identified her in his column, which we're not going to do because of the secrecy thingy, and the writer refused to say who leaked her name to him? Eventually, he did disclose who told him her name and it wasn't the guy from the vice president's office who got charged, so the trial went on nonetheless.

Well, anyway, a lot of people forget there was another newspaper reporter in on that story.

She went to jail for 85 days in 2005 because she would not identify her source for the Valerie name, which is an excellent way to become famous as a reporter because your media pals portray you as a regular Nathan Hale, who was a real spy and had only one life to give for his country but got caught and hanged by the British once because there was no 24-hour media to generate protective publicity in those days.

So, when the reporter got out, she cracked like pretty much all do and did point the finger and her employer got unhappy and because she had been kinda officious as an editor, her so-called colleagues were leaking bad stuff about her to other reporters about her pre-war writing on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, which turned out to have been wrong unlike any other newspaper story in printing history.

But those leakers didn't get charged because nobody thinks she's a CIA agent probably, so she has no cover to blow. Eventually, her newspaper kinda fired her, but as always it wasn't called that because there was probably a bunch of money involved, which is that company's favorite way of handling trouble.

So she went on to join the Manhattan Institute as a writer-researcher. And then Monday the fair and balanced news came out that Fox News has hired her as a commentator, which there sure are a lot of on television these days, most of them having been involved in government or politics and trouble, or all three. In fact, that seems to be a major qualification to become a commenting entertainer.

So now she'll be on TV a whole bunch and, when you think about it, everything turned out just fine for everyone as it somehow always seems to do in Washington scandals because everyone gets famous and makes a whole bunch of money unlike the rest of us out here watching with our mouths open.

But all that's gonna change for sure with the next administration. You can believe in that.

The new commentator's name is Judith Miller. She's 60. (Because of the secrecy thing we've hidden a photo of her on the jump of this item. Don't click on the Read more line or anyone can see it.)

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo credit: Associated Press (below)

Comments

[maberlin]

Isn't she the reporter who falls so in love "metaphysically speaking" with her sources that she reports anything they say as fact? Wasn't she the one who "reported" that WMDs would be found in Iraq and beat the drums of war? Perfect. She will fit right in.

[Don D.]

Judith, this was a waste of my time. I suppose you were trying to be cute with phrases such as "secrecy thingy", but instead the whole blog was hard to read, imprecise and trivial.

[kbl]

Andrew, you are great.

The other funny thing about this story is:
The administration guy who did tell the veteran reporter the secret information about the wife wasn't charged. But he also didn't tell the President that he was the one that had talked to the columnist, so when the President said "we'll get to the bottom of this", the leaker thought he would just tell his boss.
The boss said, well let's not tell the President it was you because then we might be blamed for something. They kept it secret until a special prosecutor was found and another guy was charged and then a THIRD reporter said...wait a minute. It was this *other* guy that leaked to me. And then that guy admitted it but his boss still hasn't said anything about it. But he had left the administration and kept pretty quiet.
Until Sunday, when the boss that hid the leaker's identity was on Meet the Press and gave his endorsement to Barack Obama.
So Colin Powell and Judith Miller emerge during the same week. Isn't that fun?

[Terrorism on Fox]

Perhaps the most despicable crime committed by the Bush administration was the treasonous disclosure of Valerie Plame's intelligence status. This above all else should be considered a terrorist act.

Only if Barak Obama is elected president do we stand a prayer of a chance to investigate this horrific crime and bring ALL conspirators to justice.

[Maggie45]

Andrew, I think I just fell in love. (swoon) LOL

This was HILARIOUS !

(Gee, a positive comment! Remarkable. You made my night. Thank you.)

[hdgreene]

I thought his wife sent him to Africa, not the White House. Or do they live in a white house and she wanted to get the lazy bum out of it?

[mason]

Cold civil war.

[Stan]

One little thing about the secrecy thingy. That husband, the one married to the not-secret agent? The Whitehouse didn't send him, as your story claimed. As his wife famously said when pushed on the subject, "some guy" passing by, hearing the discussion, suggested "him".

[Tennwriter]

An excellently silly tone for a really silly controversy (except for the part where bueraucrats in the know refuse to do their duty to protect themselves....yes. Gen. Powell, I'm a bit curious about your role in all this? Perhaps you'd care to elucidate?)