Pulling the Threads Together

The question that hasn't been answered yet-- though perhaps it will be answered when Judy Miller testifies again today-- is who other than Libby was Judy Miller protecting?

RawStory gives us a preview of a WSJ article out tomorrow, telling us that "Lawyers say investigation into CIA leak widens to probe 'broader conspiracy' around Iraq." The relevant bit:

Lawyers familiar with the investigation believe that at least part of the outcome likely hangs on the inner workings of what has been dubbed the White House Iraq Group. Formed in August 2002, the group, which included Messrs. Rove and Libby, worked on setting strategy for selling the war in Iraq to the public in the months leading up to the March 2003 invasion.

Now, let's remind ourselves of who was in the WHIG:

Karl Rove; I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby; Condoleezza Rice; Stephen Hadley; Andrew Card; Alberto Gonzales; Mary Matalin; Ari Fleischer; Susan Ralston; Israel Hernandez; John Hannah; Scott McClellan; Dan Bartlett; Claire Buchan; Catherine Martin; Colin Powell; Karen Hughes; Adam Levine; Bob Joseph; Vice President Dick Cheney; President George W. Bush

21 people. We've heard rumors of 22 indictments, including reports tonight that Cheney may be a target of the investigation. It's unlikely that each person on the WHIG would get a single indictment, or that every person would be indicted. But if you add Judy Miller in, you get a nice 22 people.

Other numbers: Judy Miller spends 85 days in jail, and then is released after coming to an agreement with Fitzgerald that limits the scope of her testimony. Under the agreement, Fitzgerald can't compel her to testify about conversations with other people.

Mark Kleiman has summarized the operating theory from here:

1. The revelation of Plame's identity to Cooper and Novak (among others) was part of an attack on Joseph Wilson's credibility that started before, and not after, his NYT op-ed of July 6, 2003...

2. Miller planned to write a story about Wilson, prompted by Libby and members of the W.H.I.G.; those plans were pre-empted by his op-ed....

3. Libby had told the grand jury about his conversations with Miller in July, but not about conversations in June relating to the story that Miller planned to write but never wrote....

4. Unbeknownst to Libby and Miller, Fitzgerald had learned of those June conversations, either from Wilson or from someone at the Times.

5. As Fitzgerald expected, Miller in her testimony did not mention the June conversations with Libby....

6. Once Miller's testimony was over, Fitzgerald called her lawyer and said, "Why didn't your client mention the June conversations when she was asked about them?" It was that phone call that triggered Miller's sudden discovery of the June notes.

7. Having caught Miller committing perjury, Fitzgerald is now in a position to, in effect, renege on his agreement to ask her only about her conversations with Libby. Under the terms of that agreement, Fitzgerald can't compel her to testify about conversations with other people, but she can of course do so voluntarily. And Fitzgerald can tell her lawyer that if she fails to volunteer, she may be looking at substantially more than 85 days behind bars on charges of perjury, conspiracy to obstruct justice, being an accessory to Libby's violations of the Espionage Act, or being a co-conspirator with him and others in those violations.

But the question remains-- who other than Libby was Judy Miller protecting?

After all, would she really spend 85 days in jail to protect Scooter Libby? Why, when Libby had ostensibly released her to testify a year ago?

One theory is because she needed to protect another source-- a higher source. Perhaps the Vice President himself. The turning aspens adds some color, if nothing else, to this theory.

Another theory is that she was and is protecting herself from her own role in the conspiracy. But maybe it's not the conspiracy outlined above.

The WHIG, after all, "are not just spin artists. They are propagandists. They were very involved with Alisdair Campbell in the 'sexing up' of the WMD threat." And no one sexed up the WMD threat in America more than Judy Miller and the New York Times.

The conspiracy to out Valerie Plame and discredit Joe Wilson is, after all, merely a cover-up meant to cloak the far-greater conspiracy of how the White House manufactured evidence and disseminated its propaganda in the lead-up to the Iraq war.

And Judy Miller is at the heart of that conspiracy, as well.

Time will tell, even if the Times won't.

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