Judge Sentelle delivers
Home run, BushCo.
A U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday that two journalists must testify before a federal grand jury about their confidential sources in an investigation into a leak that exposed the identity of a covert CIA operative.
The three-judge panel ruled that New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper of Time Magazine must comply with a subpoena from a grand jury investigating whether the Bush administration illegally leaked the officer's name to the news media.
The decision upheld a ruling by a federal judge that Miller and Cooper were in contempt of court and should be jailed for refusing to testify about their confidential sources. Miller and Cooper each face as much as 18 months in prison.
No decision that puts Judith Miller on ice can be all bad, but the overall impact here is devastating, and exactly what our ruling cabal wanted when they set this Kabuki theater production in motion.
If reporters are forced to reveal sources, those sources dry up. Which means, of course, that whatever pathetic remnant of actual reporting the press still does will be reduced even further. Intimidating sources has always been at the heart of Bush's MO here.
Lest you think that this is a principled decision and that the courts are somehow above the fray, consider that this decision was handed down by none other than Judge David Sentelle. Read about how he made his conservative bones here and here -- just so happens he was the guy who (a) overturned the Iran-Contra convictions that would have put Poppy Bush in a world of hurt if the convicted underlings had flipped and (b) put the boil known as Ken Starr on Bill Clinton's ass.
The world is filled with the most amazing coincidences.
A U.S. appeals court ruled on Tuesday that two journalists must testify before a federal grand jury about their confidential sources in an investigation into a leak that exposed the identity of a covert CIA operative.
The three-judge panel ruled that New York Times reporter Judith Miller and Matthew Cooper of Time Magazine must comply with a subpoena from a grand jury investigating whether the Bush administration illegally leaked the officer's name to the news media.
The decision upheld a ruling by a federal judge that Miller and Cooper were in contempt of court and should be jailed for refusing to testify about their confidential sources. Miller and Cooper each face as much as 18 months in prison.
No decision that puts Judith Miller on ice can be all bad, but the overall impact here is devastating, and exactly what our ruling cabal wanted when they set this Kabuki theater production in motion.
If reporters are forced to reveal sources, those sources dry up. Which means, of course, that whatever pathetic remnant of actual reporting the press still does will be reduced even further. Intimidating sources has always been at the heart of Bush's MO here.
Lest you think that this is a principled decision and that the courts are somehow above the fray, consider that this decision was handed down by none other than Judge David Sentelle. Read about how he made his conservative bones here and here -- just so happens he was the guy who (a) overturned the Iran-Contra convictions that would have put Poppy Bush in a world of hurt if the convicted underlings had flipped and (b) put the boil known as Ken Starr on Bill Clinton's ass.
The world is filled with the most amazing coincidences.
posted by bluememe at 2/15/2005
7 Comments:
Any system of justice under which Oliver North is not in jail and Judith Miller stands to take Robert Novak's rightful place there is inherently corrupt. Judge Sentelle fits right in.
Hell, any system of justice where Robert Novak isn't under threat of a jail sentence is wrong. He was the one who printed the name, wasn't he?
I don't think its unreasonable to expect that sources who knowingly use reporters to commit treason do not have a right to anonymity.
I don't think we're in Kansas anymore. Well maybe we are. Kansas is a red state, isn't it? Nothing makes sense anymore when, as Anonymous said, "Oliver North is not in jail and Judith Miller stands to take Robert Novak's rightful place there."
Another angle: Maybe Novak's source is more worthy of protection than Miller's and Cooper's.
If the Bush administration illegally leaked the officer's name to the news media, isn't this a Federal Offense? Shouldn't Novak be arrested also?
Arrest Novak for treason and be done with this little cat-and-mouse game that has gone on far too long.
I am still dumbfounded that Novak is not in jail.
Amazing, he's the original breaker of the story. Judith Miller, although I will be happy if she goes to jail, was only following up on what the traitor Novak had already done.
Why is he still running around free?
Why is the outing of one of our own going unpunished?
There is only one possible answer, and that is that the WH - the top dogs - wanted this to happen, and Novak is just another Gannon.
And even if Novak is not an actual prostitute as well, I would be surprised to find that he didn't receive monetary compensation from the administration ala Williams.
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