I posted this comment in response to this post on Antonia Zerbisias' blog, which relates to the recent blog meme about Judith Miller (see here and here and here).
Antonia is away, so the comment may not get approved for a few days. Just in case, I decided to post it here:
Huffington's dispatches on Miller are long on gossip and innuendo and short on facts.
In 2003 I spent some time with MET Alpha in Iraq when Judy was on a break in the US. I found the MET Alpha guys to be paragons of professionalism. They worked hard hunting for weapons and did so to the best of their ability. They may not have found stockpiles but they did recover artifacts stolen by Saddam Hussein's intelligence service and a lot of intelligence documents.
Those supplying the anonymous quotes about Miller's influence on MET Alpha are just jealous. Who cares if she was embedded with them because of her past reporting on weapons? Put the accuracy of her reporting aside -- she was clearly an expert on that subject. It was her beat.
Sure, she may have had info that was of use to the unit, but again, who cares? What was she supposed to do? Keep it to herself and not help them, thus lessening her chances of getting a great scoop for herself?
I also saw no evidence of any inappropriate relationships between her and any of the unit's members. Of course they were friends - if you spent that much time with a small group of people in a war-torn country you would be too. She was also not the only reporter with access to the unit. I know of at least two others who spent time with them -- myself, and David Kay, who was then a consultant for NBC News and who later went on to be the Chief Weapons Inspector.
I find the sniping at Miller unfortunate and, frankly, sad. I also find it highly distasteful that all this is going on while she is unable to defend herself. Recall that JUDY IS IN PRISON. If this is the kind of thanks a journalist who chooses to go to jail to protect press freedoms gets, remind me never to do it.
The only reason people are going after her is because she is an independent-minded reporter and not your typical left-wing poster child. If this were happening to anyone else Huffington and Zerb would show nothing but support.
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 4:11 PM
