Judy Miller Had "Security Clearance" To Report Rumsfeld's Spin

Empty wheel at The Next Hurrah has some interesting insight into the supposed "security clearance" Judy had that "embedded" her with the Bush Administration.

Judy's embed rules (and presumably, security clearance) were not approved by military censors. Rather, they came from an agreement she personally struck with Rummy. I go into this in obssessive detail in my series on Judy. But based on her portrayal of 'Secret Squirrel' Yankee Fan and a few others, I'm fairly convinced the sources and methods Judy is hiding are details of veracity, not security. That is, Judy has clearance to report on staged stories. Her clearance is about reporting the details Rummy wants reported and hiding the really sketchy provenance for those stories. It has almost nothing to do with a real security clearance, with trying to prevent any info that would compromise national security from being released. (Although, this is probably more and more true of security clearances in BushCo--they're hiding their lies, not our vital truths.) All this doesn't not definitively explain which side of the security clearance issue Judy comes down on. Perhaps she does have clearance, but getting it was contigent on Judy writing precisely the stories they wanted her to write, on never questioning the stories she was given. Or perhaps she doesn't have clearance at all. When you deal entirely in fictions, why would you need clearance?


One more thing. The nature of her embed suggests Rummy's personal involvement here. Is it possible he gave her "clearance" without going through the normal channels of clearing someone? That is, it possible her clearance isn't clearance at all, just Rummy's carte blanche to circulate classified information? Fitz seems to know a bit about Judy's clearance. I wonder if he knows how she got that clearance?

So, it would appear that Judy Miller was just another instrument of propaganda for the Bush Administration. That certainly makes Judy a reporter to hold in distain. On it's face, this action seems to also violate the covert propaganda law like the bought media hacks for "No Child Left Behind."