1. Before Judy Miller agreed to testify, she got a letter from Scooter Libby, who wrote "The public report of every other reporter's testimony makes clear that they did not discuss Ms. Plame's name or identify me." And:
2. When asked about a possible second source, Miller's attorney, Floyd Abrams, said others may have mentioned Plame only "in passing. ... The central and essentially only figure who had information was Libby." Still:
3. Judy Miller "forgot" who gave her the name Valerie Flame.
Is there any connection between Libby's letter stating he never mentioned the name, and Miller professing she can't remember who gave her the name? Sure looks like it to me. Remember, Judy spoke to Scooter on July 12, 2003, only nine days before Joe Wilson started accusing The White House of a smear campaign against his wife.
And at the time, Judy writes that she was "annoyed" that Robert Novak had beaten her on a story, and felt that "since The Times had run Mr. Wilson's original essay, it had an obligation to explore any allegation that undercut his credibility." Remember, the day after Wilson's op-ed piece was published, The White House conceded that the intelligence on uranium from Africa was weak. Four months prior, the International Atomic Intelligence Agency told the U.N. "there is no indication that Iraq has attempted to import uranium since 1990," and the documents evidencing a Niger-Iraq deal were but crude forgeries.
If you wondered if the woman has any shame, her story on Sunday seems to remove all doubt.