Does The Times Read The Times?

The NY Times has a very helpful feature titled "Diary of the Leak Trial", with timelines and summaries of the key witness testimony.

However... I pointed out some problems with it last week, but I am continuing to take special umbrage at this description of John Hannah's cross-examination by Special Counsel Fitzgerald:

Mr. Hannah conceded that if Mr. Libby took two hours out of his busy day - as he did to meet with Ms. Miller - it meant Mr. Libby considered Ms. Wilson a key issue.

"Ms. Wilson" was a "key issue"?  The incident in question is Libby's breakfast meeting with Judy Miller on July 8.  Jim Rutenberg of the Times gives us seven paragraphs (after the break) on the background to that meeting - secretly and over the objections of George Tenet, Dick Cheney had arranged a secret declassification of the NIE by George Bush.  This was so beyond Libby's normal experience that he actually double-checked the legality of this with OVP Counsel David Addington.  But nowhere does Mr. Rutenberg mention "the wife".  One possible interpretation - leaking the secretly declassified NIE to Judy Miller was what made the meeting important.  Just a thought.

Or, if the Times does not believe their own Jim Rutenberg, perhaps they will believe Neil Lewis and Scott Shane - here is their account of that exchange:

Although Mr. Hannah testified for the defense for nearly two hours, the prosecutor, Mr. Fitzgerald, seemed to cut down much of the significance of his testimony in five minutes of cross-examination. Noting that Mr. Hannah had testified that he could usually have a few minutes alone with Mr. Libby only in the evening after the crush of business, Mr. Fitzgerald suggested that Mr. Libby would have devoted time only to matters of great concern to him in the week of July 6, 2003.

''If he gave something an hour or two that week, it would be something Mr. Libby thought was important, right?'' asked Mr. Fitzgerald.

''Well, with regard to me, yes,'' Mr. Hannah replied.

Left unsaid in the exchange was undisputed testimony that Mr. Libby spent nearly two hours on Tuesday, July 8, with Ms. Miller, then a Times reporter.

"Left unsaid"?  You mean, neither Fitzgerald nor Hannah mentioned the wife?  Then my goodness, how do the psychic diarists at the Times justify their summary of his cross-examination?

There is no chance of a correction or amendment - The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on - but go waste his time anyway:  [email protected]

Or, try the news desk directly: [email protected].

It is a minor point, but we are trying to coax them into baby steps here.

From Jim Rutenberg:

Mr. Libby testified to the grand jury that an angry Mr. Cheney had by then already directed him to approach a reporter he regarded as suitable, Judith Miller of The New York Times, to make his case. Mr. Libby was under instruction to describe the vice president’s ignorance of Mr. Wilson’s mission and to discuss parts of the National Intelligence Estimate from October 2002 as well as another intelligence document showing the C.I.A. continued promoting the theory about Iraq’s efforts to acquire uranium months after Mr. Wilson’s trip.

The release of the intelligence estimate was a sensitive issue. Others in the administration had considered doing so that spring when Mr. Wilson’s claim first surfaced, but faced resistance from the C.I.A. One investigator questioned in the trial testified that Mr. Libby’s notes indicated that George J. Tenet, then director of central intelligence, was personally opposed to doing so.

Mr. Libby said he found a way around that resistance by getting backdoor approval from the president. In a hush-hush meeting described in testimony, Mr. Libby asked the vice president’s chief counsel, David S. Addington, whether the president could declassify intelligence personally, effectively without C.I.A. knowledge or approval.

Mr. Addington testified that as he explained to Mr. Libby that indeed the president could do so, Mr. Libby shushed him. “He extended his hands out and pushed down a little like that, that would indicate, ‘Hold your voice down,’ ” Mr. Addington said at the trial. Mr. Libby testified that Mr. Cheney then went to Mr. Bush and got a presidential declassification.

White House officials have said Mr. Bush did not know how Mr. Cheney and Mr. Libby intended to use the intelligence.

Mr. Libby’s attempt to use the newly declassified data with Ms. Miller failed. He met with her for two hours at the St. Regis Hotel on July 8.

No wife.

Comments

[lurker]

Geesch, these people lack comprehension of the truth and facts.

[Tim]

I'd like to clarify one bit of terminology used. Scooter Libby did not 'leak' the NIE findings. He was authorized to talk about them by proper authorities. You can only leak things that aren't supposed to get out.

[Cecil Turner]

One possible interpretation - leaking the secretly declassified NIE to Judy Miller was what made the meeting important. Just a thought.

Never one to quibble (hah!), but while I'd say you were on firm ground with the interpretation, I'd take issue with the verbiage. First, per American Heritage:

leak . . .
verb, transitive . . .
2. Informal. To disclose without authorization or official sanction: leaked classified information to a reporter.

As there is now no dispute over whether Libby's disclosure to Miller was authorized, "leak" is inapt. Also, it was no secret the declassification process had been ongoing since the previous month. (Besides, "secretly declassified" is oxymoronic.) Say rather:

Previewed the upcoming release of the recently declassified portions of the NIE to Judy Miller.

There, I feel better now.

[lonetown]

Another documentation of either incompetance or deliberate misdirection.

Its endless with the NYT and its obvious they are at war with the rubes and bubbas.

[bio mom]

You should have heard the NY Daily News reporter on c-span today to see biased coverage of the summations of the trial. Every media meme about Wilson and Plame, outing a covert agent, Dick Cheney, et al was trotted out by this supposedly objective reporter. Really vomit-inducing. Also, check out the Reuters blurb posted on NRO's media blog. Don't you know, Libby is guilty until proven innocent!! There must have been a constitutional ammendment that I missed about this.

[Alcibiades]

bio mom, I caught a few minutes of that as well. Really vomit inducing, as you say.

[Pofarmer]

But they ain't biased. It's just that the rest of the country is sooooooo far right.

[JM Hanes]

TM:

This bit in the Rutenberg excerpt seems to be virtually screaming for air!

Mr. Libby said he found a way around that resistance by getting backdoor approval from the president.

I'll have to check the gj testimony, because Rutenberg seems to be the only one who has ever suggested that the idea of declassifying the NIE originated with Libby. Everyone else has Libby checking with Addington because he was worried the VP might be asking him to do something wrong.

This version makes so much more sense! The OVP was not happy with Tenet's proposed public statement (or Tenet's CIA). If Libby (whether on his own or with Cheney) comes up with the declassifying scheme in order to make an end run around Tenet altogether, it's entirely logical that Libby would not only start by checking out the legalities with Addington but also tell Addington to keep his voice down. They certainly wouldn't want to advertise the fact that they're going to try cutting Tenet off at the knees.

[cathyf]

C'mon, TM, don't be so obtuse. If Libby took two hours for a lunch, it could only have been to report the amazing fact that Joe Wilson married two different women who double-ovulated and conceived fraternal twins using his sperm. Why, this is like winning the lotto twice! What're the odds?!?! Of course the two hours proves how important Mrs. Wilson was to Libby. (Actually, that would be Mrs. Wilsons plural.)

(Do I get a job being a Times reporter now?)

(Please, somebody find a link to the 60s or 70s era New Yorker cartoon which shows two fellows standing in front of a blackboard. On the left side of the board is dense mass of mathematical equations. Then the words "leap of faith" followed by another mass of dense equations. The caption is a drool, "Tell me a little more about this step here..." Oh, well, I suppose there is nobody at the NYT smart enough to appreciate the insult...)

[cathyf]

Talk about a freudian slip... I suppose if one intends to write "droll" and instead writes "drool" it just proves that one is not droll...

[JM Hanes]

Shoot, am I the only one who thinks Rutenberg's formulation here seems to break a significant piece of new ground?

[JM Hanes]

I guess so.