OK, for a start, there really is no
"Judith Miller and me," at least in the sense that I'd invite her to my birthday party. But I have talked to her on the phone a few times (nothing to do with Valerie Plame, Scooter Libby or Karl Rove, however). For a time, our lives were remotely in each other's gravity,
drawn together by a pseudo-journalist--indeed, a model for what Miller has become--named Steven Emerson... "Perhaps Miller's most consistent failing as a journalist is that she only makes connections and offers analyses of matters that suit her thesis about the militant, hateful quality of the Arab world. I have little quarrel with the general view that the Arab world is in a dreadful state, and have said so repeatedly for the past three decades. But she barely registers the existence of a determined anti-Arab and anti-Islamic U.S. policy. She plays fast and loose with fact."Did you get that last sentence by Said: Miller "plays fast and loose with fact." Said wrote that nine years ago. The Times apparently just noticed.
Miller first surfaced on my radar about a decade ago. Her close confederate was Emerson. Both had been engaged in a furious campaign attacking virtually every Arab and Muslim voice in America. Emerson--who also at various times claimed to be a journalist--lost his foothold as a commentator among most responsible media, especially after he tried to pin the Oklahoma City bombing on Muslims.
Emerson's most noteworthy crusade has been against a Tampa professor, Sami Al-Arian. Emerson and an ally at The Tampa Tribune were relentless. I eventually exposed many of Emerson's and the Trib's distortions and exaggerations. More important, the top FBI counterterrorism chief told me Al-Arian had not committed any federal crimes, and the lead federal prosecutor in the case also said there was no evidence to prosecute.
My heavily documented revelations about Emerson provoked him to retaliate via a lawsuit. Noteworthy, the lawyer he went to for advice was Floyd Abrams, most recently in the news as Miller's attorney. That's only fitting.
We spent four years litigating with Emerson, and finally prevailed in both federal and state courts. The final blow to his case came when we obtained an order compelling him to show proof of his allegations. He wouldn't--couldn't?--and he ran away.
During the litigation, one of the most interesting insights that I gleaned were reports of meetings held that involved Miller, Emerson, arch-Islamaphobe Daniel Pipes--and a number of other people we now call "neo-cons." All of these people had strong ties to the right-wing Likud party in Israel. Heck, Miller had even sat in on Israeli "interrogation" sessions of Palestinians; and Emerson provided beds in his Washington apartment to Likud spooks who slipped into the United States to try and undermine peace negotiations.
Keep in mind, it took 9/11 to restore a veneer of credibility to Emerson as an "expert" on terrorism.Many people, including me, had predicted years ago that terrorism would reach our shores. If we declare we are on the road to inevitable conflict with a culture and religion, and pursue policies that reflect such belligerence, it's likely to happen. (Of course, missing from Miller's, Emerson's and Pipes' breathless predictions about terrorism striking America is the fact that it long ago had. The Islam-haters neglect to notice the thousands of terrorist events in the United States committed by fundamentalist Christians who hate blacks or oppose abortion, not to mention the scores of bombings and murders committed by right-wing Cubans in Miami. Indeed,
the only three actual Middle East-related terrorist events in Florida, including an assassination attempt on a former Israeli prime minister, were committed by radical supporters of Israel, not by Arabs or Muslims. But you're not supposed to know that.)...
John Sugg: Judith Miller and Me
Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2010 3:51 am