Juan Cole: The Judy Miller --John Bolton connection

[BurtWorm]

Part of Cole's salon.com piece explaining why Miller is an incompetent dupe rather than a malicious neocon (the whole article is *fascinating*):


http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/10/14/neocon/print.html

In any case, Miller began to uncritically parrot even some of the neocons' loonier claims. On CNN's "American Morning With Paula Zahn" for May 14, 2002, Miller explained the controversy that had broken out about allegations that Cuba had a biological weapons program. She told Zahn, "And there are a lot of very unsavory contacts, as the administration regards them, between Cuba and especially Iranians who are involved in biological weapons." Such frankly weird assertions raise questions about where in the world Miller got her so-called information. No serious intelligence professional believes that either Iran or Cuba has a significant biological weapons program, much less that a communist Latin American dictatorship was being helped by a Shiite Muslim fundamentalist state with deadly microbes.

Miller's statement only makes sense in light of the speech given by John Bolton, then undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, in May of 2002, in which he alleged that Cuba had a biological weapons program. Thomas Fingar, head of the State Department's Intelligence bureau, along with a retired national security officer, demurred from the charges in Bolton's speech. When Christian Westermann at the State Department intelligence bureau raised questions about the intelligence on which Bolton was basing his campaign, Bolton called him into his office, chewed him out, and then allegedly tried to have him fired, according to the April 18, 2005, edition of the Washington Post. Miller was channeling Bolton in her comments to Paula Zahn, and very likely was simply repeating whatever Bolton himself had told her. Washington political analyst Steven C. Clemons asserted that Bolton was a regular source for Miller in her reporting on national security and weapons of mass destruction issues. Bolton has a special interest in getting up a U.S. war against Iran, accounting for the bogus charge that it was active in Havana.

While Miller was in jail, John Bolton, now U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, came to visit her.

Miller's reporting on this subject, as with so many other subjects involving the claims of the hawks and neocons, was embarrassingly bad. Since Bolton had so many detractors in the intelligence community, it would have been easy for a good reporter to double-check his claims and to discover with what suspicion they were viewed by the professionals. (Bolton is merely a bad-tempered lawyer who did political work for the Republican Party, including helping Bush-Cheney stop the Florida recount in 2000, and has no special knowledge of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programs, much less of the Middle East.) That Miller neglected to seek out the whole story but rather contented herself with serving as a stenographer for figures such as Bolton and Iraqi fraudster Ahmad Chalabi suggests either a conviction on her part of an ideological sort, or an excessive trust in her sources -- probably both.

...

[druidity33]

1. Bolton...

Ah, with all the others, i'd love it if he went down too! He could couldn't he? Tell me the plame case might snare him too... please someone tell me that!...

[BurtWorm]

4. It;s possible.

If there's justice, definitely. But it's too soon to know if there's still such a thing as justice.

Welcome to DU. :toast:

[zippy890]

2. Excellant article - Miller the 'useful idiot'

'In the end, it seems that Miller will go down in history not so much as a true believer as a useful idiot.'

very well researched & written chronicle of Judy Miller's downfall as a credible journalist - Cole goes way back and follows her middle-east reporting from the early 90s

[formercia]

3. Judy duty Bootie

starting to look like it.

[leveymg]

5. No serious intelligence professional believes Iran has a bio weapons prgm?

As much as I respect Juan's knowledge and judgment, he's seriously off the mark on that point. It is widely accepted among bioweapons experts that Iran has one of the largest stockpiles of chemical weapons in the developing world, and has long been building a germ warfare capability.

In fact, the formidable size of Iran's CBW program and its possession of missiles that can reach targets throughout the region likely saved Iran last year from an Israeli preemptive attack on its nuclear research facilities.

What distinguishes Iran from Iraq is that the former really does have WMDs (non-nuclear), and an attack by the US and/or Israel would result in an effective response with massive casualties. It was the persistant neocon offensive -- spearheaded by Bolton, Miller, Frankin, AIPAC and Israeli intel - to push the US into a war with Iran, despite the huge costs, that resulted in the decision to prosecute the OSP-AIPAC spy ring and Plamegate.

This from the Monterrey Institute Center for Nonproliferation Studies:
http://cns.miis.edu/research/wmdme/iran.htm

Iran
Weapons of Mass Destruction Capabilities and Programs1

SNIP

Chemical3 Began CW production in mid-1980s, following CW attacks by Iraq.
Limited use of chemical weapons in 1984-1988 during war with Iraq, initially using captured Iraqi CW munitions.
Began stockpiling cyanogen chloride, phosgene, and mustard gas after 1985.
Reportedly initiated nerve agent production in 1994.
Ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention on 11/3/97, but has not submitted an initial declaration.

Biological4 Research effort reportedly initiated in 1980s during war with Iraq.
Suspected research laboratory at Damghan.
May have produced small quantities of agents and begun weaponization.
Ratified the BTWC on 8/22/73.

Ballistic missiles5 Approximately 150 Scud-C with 500km range and 700kg payload.
Up to 200 Scud-B with 300km range and 985kg payload.
Approximately 25 CSS-8s with 150km range and 190kg payload.
Unknown quantity of indigenous Mushak missiles with ranges from 120km to 200km, and payloads of 150kg to 500kg.
Launched almost 100 Scud-B against Iraq during 1985-1988.
Developing Shahab-3 with over 1,000km range and over 700kg payload, and Shahab-4 with 2,000km range and 1,000kg payload.

Cruise missiles6 HY-4/C-201 with 150km range and 500kg payload.
Harpoon with 120km range and 220kg payload.
SS-N-22 Sunburn with 110km range and 500kg payload.
HY-2 Silkworm with 95km range and 513kg payload.
YJ-2/C-802 with 95km range and 165kg payload.
AS-9 Kyle with 90km range and 200kg payload.
AS-11 Kilter with 50km range and 130kg payload.

Other delivery systems7 Ground attack and fighter aircraft include: 30 Su-24, 60 F-4D/E, 60 F-14A, 30 MiG-29, 60 F-5E/F, and 24 F-7. Most not operational due to lack of spare parts.
Ground systems include artillery and rocket launchers, notably hundreds of Oghab artillery rockets with a 45km range and unknown payload, and hundreds of Nazeat (N5) artillery rockets with a 105-120km range and 150kg warhead.

SNIP

[BurtWorm]

6. kick