Judy Miller v Byron Calame & Jill Abramson

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan's link, I read the email from Judy Miller on Byron Calame's NY Times blog. She says that she told the truth, and Andrew Sullivan says that means she is calling Jill Abramson a liar (though all she really says is that they remember events differently).

I think she's calling Calame an unfair reporter.Here's an excerpt from Miller's letter:

I fail to see why I am responsible for my editors’ alleged failure to do some “digging” into my confidential sources and the notebooks. From the start, the legal team that the Times provided me knew who my source was and had access to my notes. I never refused to answer questions or provide any information they requested. No one indicated they had doubts about the stand I took to go to jail.

Your essay clearly implies that the Times and I did something wrong in waging a battle that we did not choose. I strongly disagree. What did I do wrong? Your essay does not say. You may disapprove of my earlier reporting on Weapons of Mass Destruction. But what did the delayed publication of the editor’s note on that reporting have to do with the
decision I made over a year later, which the paper fully supported, to protect our confidential sources? I remain proud of my decision to go to jail rather than reveal the identity of a source to whom I had pledged confidentiality, even if he happened to work for the Bush White House.

The Times asked me to assume a low profile in this controversy. I told everyone that I had no intention of airing internal editorial policy disputes and disagreements at the paper, as a matter of principle and loyalty to those who stood by me during this ordeal. Others have chosen a different path, ironically becoming “confidential sources” themselves.

You never bothered to mention in your essay my decision to spend 85 days in jail to honor the pledge I made. I’m saddened that you, like so many others, have blurred the core issue of that stand and I am stunned that you refused to post my answers to issues we had discussed on your web site at the critical moment that Times readers were forming their opinions.

Judith Miller

I think Miller appears to be right. Unlike Andrew Sullivan, I don't think she's digging a deeper hole for herself, even if she gets fired by her editors. All the evidence points to Times editors digging holes for themselves, due to political pressure...

Editor and Publisher: Off With Judy Miller's Head!

E & P columnist Gregg Mitchell calls on the New York Times to fire Judy Miller. For protecting her source? Or because her source was a prominent Republican?

Mitchell is showing his devotion to partisanship over principle.

Disgraceful.

BearingPoint CEO Explains Company's Math Problem

Sometimes the news really forces you to smile, recalling Puck's line in A Midsummer's Night's Dream...

One example, according to this story in today's Washington Post business section, KMPG spinoff BearingPoint apparently can't do its own math--sort of embarassing for an accounting consultancy firm.

Because the company did not know how many errors might have been made in the months it was using its new system, it had no choice but to recheck every accounting entry.

The process has been laborious, involving not only the hundreds of accountants, but forcing many of the company's 17,000 employees to retrace the hours they worked on each project and verify their billing information. It was a factor in what has been a troubling talent drain, You said. In the first nine months of the year, about one-fourth of BearingPoint's workers left the company.

New employees have been hired, but You has had to put a premium on retention. He implemented a new merit-based compensation system for the top 800 employees and made it fully open so that each knows the salaries of all the others. He also began holding company-wide conference calls every other week so employees can ask about everything from vacation policy to You's vision for the company.

Not all who follow the company have accepted You's description of BearingPoint's problems or think he has done enough to fix them.

William R. Loomis, an analyst at Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc., said You's explanation about the source of the accounting problems makes sense. But he added that if the financial system the company created "wasn't user intuitive and you have to spend a lot of money to train people, then the system probably wasn't installed right."

In recent months, the company announced it was closing operations in Peru and Thailand, strengthening its presence in India, and focusing on landing larger, more profitable projects. You told analysts two weeks ago he expects BearingPoint to turn a profit next year.

Reviews from Wall Street have been mixed. After a meeting with analysts two weeks ago, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. issued a report saying it was "optimistic the turnaround is gaining steam." Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., however, said its analysts believe the "risk/reward on [BearingPoint] shares remains unattractive."

According to the article, some 40 percent of BearingPoint's business comes from government contracts. According to this September 29, 2005 article in Consultant News:

BearingPoint has been awarded a three-year contract to support treasury operations and implement efficient business processes within the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's Ministry of Finance.

BearingPoint will help the Ministry build its accounting and financial management capacity as well as manage incoming funding from international donors.

Valued at $6.85 million, the new engagement calls specifically for BearingPoint to strengthen the Ministry's cash management capabilities and to develop strategies for treasury processes and human resources management.

BearingPoint was first engaged by the Republic in 2002 to provide a benchmark for a fully functional financial management system.

The scope of the current work includes managing the existing Afghan Financial Management Information System (AFMIS, which was implemented by BearingPoint), and continuing the deployment of AFMIS functions.

BearingPoint has handled similar projects in post-conflict environments including Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and South Sudan.

(The Washington Post story on this deal can be found here.)

Just think, the company America sends to advise other countries on how to improve financial management--and which just got a contract for improving security at the Port of New York and New Jersey--is unable to keep its own books straight.

Which raises the question: After this sort of revelation, who would hire BearingPoint, and why?

Buy Your Copy of Scooter Libby's Book Here

From Powell's Books catalog description of The Apprentice:

A gripping novel of suspense, "The Apprentice" takes place in a remote mountain inn in northernmost Japan, where a raging blizzard has brought together wayfarers who share only growing suspicion of one another. It is the winter of 1903 and the apprentice, charged with running the inn during the owner's absence, finds himself plunged headlong into murder, passion, and heart-stopping chases through the snow.

Wolfowitz Recites...

I heard BBC World News anchor Katty Kay on Chris Matthews today refer to this religious episode, and had to watch it -- the video in which World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz recites from the Koran during a visit with the Dongchuan village Imam in a Chinese mosque. (Wolfowitz smiled like a bar mitzvah boy reciting his Haftorah portion.)

Here's the link to the Realplayer video clip, so you can see and hear the scene for yourself.

Tom Honig: Judy Miller Defended Press Freedom

The Santa Cruz Sentinel publishes a defense of Judy Miller:

Miller obviously retained a tremendous amount of responsibility for herself. Among other decisions, she decided to discuss the CIA case with administration officials. She also decided — correctly — not to write a story.

She obviously is a controversial figure — not only with the public, but apparently within The New York Times newsroom.

But this much is clear: despite everything else, she did the right thing when she went to great lengths to protect her source. She went to prison until she was absolutely sure that her source would allow her to testify.

In today's super-heated political environment, a reporter must protect a source. Sometimes doing so is popular, as it was in the Watergate era. Sometimes it's less so, as it is with Miller now.

But press freedom is endangered when sources can't trust a reporter.

The Name That Must Not Be Spoken

Mark Steyn says it's not "Yaweh" or some Masonic Lodge secret:

When the NPR report started, I was driving on the vast open plains of I-91 in Vermont and reckoned, just to make things interesting, I'll add another five miles to the speed for every minute that goes by without mentioning Islam. But I couldn't get the needle to go above 130, and the vibrations caused the passenger-side wing-mirror to drop off. And then, right at the end, having conducted a perfect interview that managed to go into great depth about everything except who these guys were and what they were fighting over, the Russian academic dude had to go and spoil it all by saying somethin' stupid like "republics which are mostly . . . Muslim." He mumbled the last word, but nevertheless the NPR gal leapt in to thank him and move smoothly on to some poll showing that the Dems are going to sweep the 2006 midterms because Bush has the worst numbers since numbers were invented.

I underestimated multiculturalism. After 9/11, I assumed the internal contradictions of the rainbow coalition would be made plain: that a cult of "tolerance" would in the end founder against a demographic so cheerfully upfront in their intolerance. Instead, Islamic "militants" have become the highest repository of multicultural pieties. So you're nice about gays and Native Americans? Big deal. Anyone can be tolerant of the tolerant, but tolerance of intolerance gives an even more intense frisson of pleasure to the multiculti- masochists. And so Islamists who murder non-Muslims in pursuit of explicitly Islamic goals are airbrushed into vague, generic "rebel forces." You can't tell the players without a scorecard, and that's just the way the Western media intend to keep it. If you wake up one morning and switch on the TV to see the Empire State Building crumbling to dust, don't be surprised if the announcer goes, "Insurging rebel militant forces today attacked key targets in New York. In other news, the president's annual Ramadan banquet saw celebrities dancing into the small hours to Mullah Omar And His All-Girl Orchestra . . ."

What happened in Russia on Thursday was serious business, not just in the death toll but in the number of key government installations that the alleged insurging rebel militants of non-specific ideology managed to seize with relative ease. The militantly rebellious insurgers of no known religious affiliation have long said they want a pan-Caucasian Islamic state from the Black Sea to the Caspian Sea, and the carnage they wreaked in the hitherto semi-safe-ish republic of Kabardino-Balkaria suggests that they're more likely to spread the conflict to other parts of the Russian Federation than Moscow is to contain it."

Why I'm Waiting for Judy Miller's Book...

It's because of news items like this one, from today's Washington Post. We don't know the whole story, yet. But it looks more and more that the NY Times is willing to sacrifice principle under pressure, to wit, this comment from editor Bill Keller's email:

But if I had known the details of Judy's entanglement with Libby, I'd have been more careful in how the paper articulated its defense, and perhaps more willing than I had been to support efforts aimed at exploring compromises...

Translation: We'd have burned Miller's source and then thrown her overboard.
Pathetic.

The New Foreign Affairs

The new issue of Foreign Affairs has arrived and it has a number of interesting articles, none more so than Zayno Baran's piece on the threat posed by Islamist groups like Hizb-ut-Tahrir.

HT is not itself a terrorist organization, but it can usefully be thought of as a conveyor belt for terrorists. It indoctrinates individuals with radical ideology, priming them for recruitment by more extreme organizations where they can take part in actual operations. By combining fascist rhetoric, Leninist strategy, and Western sloganeering with Wahhabi theology, HT has made itself into a very real and potent threat that is extremely difficult for liberal societies to counter.

HT's ideology and theology, which are derived from those of other radical Islamist groups, are simplified to make them more accessible to the masses. Whereas many other Islamist groups insist that their particular religious interpretation is the only valid one or are obsessed with a single issue, such as Israel or Kashmir, HT keeps its focus on the broader goal of uniting all Muslims under the Islamist banner and thus emphasizes issues of more general concern, such as the clash of civilizations or the injustices suffered by Muslims worldwide. Other radical Islamists therefore tend to see the group not as a competitor but as an ally and often use HT's concepts and literature (readily available on the Internet) to rally their own supporters.

HT's greatest achievement to date is that it has shifted the terms of debate within the Muslim world. Until a few years ago, most Islamist groups considered the notion of establishing a new caliphate a utopian goal. Now, an increasing number of people consider it a serious objective. And after decades of stressing the existence and unity of a global Islamic community (umma), HT can take pride in the growing feeling among Muslims that their primary identity stems from, and their primary loyalty is owed to, their religion rather than their race, ethnicity, or nationality.

There's other interesting stuff, too, on Iraq and Vietnam by Melvin Laird (did he lose Vietnam, or was it Rumsfeld? or Cheney?); and on Uzbekistan's Karshi-Khanabad airbase by John Cooley (he believes dictators are unreliable partners for the US Air Force and democractically elected rulers are more dependable...like Franco and Schroeder, maybe?). Another article that's worth reading is a book review by John M. Owen of a new study showing that emerging democracies are very likely to go to war, subhead: Who Says Democracies Don't Fight?.

Something for everyone in this issue of Foreign Affairs...and the best part of all is the REALLY BIG PRINT for ageing eyes.

Masterpiece and Mystery!

I haven't watched in years, didn't even know when they were on because PBS kept moving them around the schedule, but now Bryan Curtis reports in Slate that Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery are back on the PBS schedule -- with dramatizations of works by Arthur Conan Doyle and Robert Louis Stevenson.

RSF 2005 Press Freedom Rankings Flawed

Reporters Sans Frontieres has published a ranking of countries acording to their survey of press freedom that puts Denmark in the number one slot and the USA in 22nd position (below Bosnia and Herzegovina). Among the factors taken into consideration was the jailing of NY Times reporter Judith Miller, apparently, though this is all the website had to say:

Violations of the privacy of sources, persistent problems in granting press visas and the arrest of several journalists during anti-Bush demonstrations kept the United States (22nd) away from the top of the list.

.

"Arrest of several journalists during anti-Bush demonstrations" sounded weird. This kind of RSF survey result raised some doubts in my mind as to the honesty of the report.

So, I did a google search and found a copy of Denmark's Press Ethical Rules: National Code of Conduct. It seems that what the RSF survey group considers press freedom might be a little different from what Americans think freedom of speech means. In effect, the RSF survey is at best a popularity contest or reputational survey, not a scientific survey of the actual state of freedom of the press.

For example: Denmark has no First Amendment (indeed, unlike the USA, Denmark has an established chuch supported by taxes) and also has a Press Council which may require newspapers to publish articles resulting from complaints to the Press Council--sometimes on the front page...

Furthermore, unlike the United States, Denmark has legalized prior censorship of newspaper articles. In addition, Denmark's laws wouldn't seem to offer any protection to Judith Miller, since as in the USA, there is no absolute right to protect sources in a Danish criminal case:

Protection of sources
Just as the journalists´and other people´s access to information from public administrations is limited by several exceptions, journalists´ source protection is not absolute. Though, it has been improved lately.
The journalist´s professional secrecy is defined in the Administration of Justice Act where it is recognised that journalists sometimes have to protect the identity of a source during a trial. The principal rule in article 172 in the act is that mass media editorial staff cannot be obliged to pass information about sources who do not appear with their names in the medium.
However, some exceptions exist to this principal rule. In article 172, subsection 5 it is said:
"However, where the subject-matter is a serious offence and which according to the law can result in imprisonment up to four years or more, the court may direct the persons ....to give evidence, provided that due to the seriousness of the crime or to other special public or private interests the regard for the unravelling of the crime clearly outweighs the regard for the protection of the source as related to the social importance of the article or programme."
This decision was inserted in the act in 1992 after the new Media Liability Act was introduced, and after the Danish Union of Journalists, without any result, having tried to argument in favour of an absolute source protection without any exceptions.
The measures against a journalist violating article 172, subsection 5 by refusing to pass wanted information during a trial, consist of fines or imprisonment.

By every reasonable measure I can determine, the USA in fact has a freer press than Denmark.

This 'n That on Spike Lee's New Film

This 'n That doesn't like the sound of Spike Lee's HBO project...

There he goes again. Spike Lee is all about self promotion. This time he is using African American victims of Hurricane Katrina in a documentary for HBO that accuses the American government of a conspiracy to rid New Orleans of its African American citizenry. How ridiculous? No more or less than the one that came out of the African American community a few years back, alleging that Snapple had been laced with some sort of poisonous ingredient that would kill any African American who dared consume it. This 'n' That challenges Spike Lee to put his money where his mouth is. Why hasn't he offered to open his home on Martha's Vineyard, or other property he owns, to African American homeless victims of Hurricane Katrina, instead of making mindless accusations in a selfish attempt boost his fledgling career? Recently, a white couple in California donated five or six of their homes and a year's worth of rent to 40 members of an African American family from New Orleans.

Turn off the camera, shut your mouth and open your wallet, Spike.

Why Do They Hate Us ? (cont'd)

From Sayed Salahuddin's Reuters dispatch:

KABUL, Oct 21 (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai voiced his condemnation on Friday after the release of television images appearing to show U.S. soldiers buring the corpses of two Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, and called for a quick inquiry.

The U.S. military -- already under fire for the handling of Afghan detainees and desecration of the Koran in Guantanamo Bay, which provoked angry protests in Afghanistan -- has ordered an inquiry into the footage shown on Australian television.

"We in Afghanistan, in accordance with our religion and traditions and adherence to international law, are very unhappy and condemn the burning of two Taliban dead bodies," Karzai said.

"We do not like such incidents and I hope such incidents will not occur again," he told reporters at the presidential palace.

Reporter Freed in Iraq

Rory Carroll, an Irish national reporting for the Guardian has been released by his captors.

More on Harriet Miers

From Wikipedia.

BBC: How Hurricane Wilma Affected Me

First person accounts of the latest hurricane heading to the USA can be found here.

The Cat's Medicine

We were in San Diego over the weekend, and had a chance to visit the San Diego Museum of Art. The collection was small but interesting, with some pleasant surprises among the Old Masters, in addition to a very nice selection of American paintings hidden in a back room on the first floor. The Putnam sisters seemed to have the best taste, their legacy included a picture attributed to Jan Steen that speaks to any cat owner who ever tried to dose a pet: "The Cat's Medicine" (1670). If you are in San Diego, it is definitely worth a visit, including the 1960s International Style Timken Museum, immediately adjacent.

Who is Thomas Graham?

Last Friday, I caught the morning session of the American Enterprise Institute's day-long symposium on the future of Russia, organized by Dr. Leon Aron. The first panel was made up of Russians talking about Russia, moderated by Dr. Aron. It was very nice, like a trip back to Moscow. They knew what they were talking about, even though one might disagree with some of their statements. It had a genuine Russian flavor in the philosophical and sometimes pessimistic presentations by Yuri Levada, Lelia Shestova, and Nikolai Zlobin. I liked Zlobin best, because he told the most jokes. He also says he has a "raspiska" signed by Putin himself, promising to resign in 2008. Shestova joked Zlobin can sue Putin if he changes his mind. It was a lot of fun.

The second panel featured two Bush administration policy-wonks responsible for Russia at the National Security Council, Thomas Graham and Angela Stent. They sat on either side of Andrei Kortunov, a Russian expert on America, which led him to joke that he felt "encircled"--although presumably moderator Nicholas Gvosdev was not part of this strategy, as the National Interest (which he edits) appears sympathetic to Russia's problems.

In any case, both Stent and Graham stated the Bush administration position that only democracy can bring stability in the fight against terrorism. They did not engage with Russian fears of destabilization caused by Islamist extremism. Graham was more mechanical than Stent, who spoke spontaneously. Graham read from notes, while Stent seemed to have given some thought to her statements. Both agreed the US would pursue a "compartmentalized" approach to Russia. Incredibly, Stent gave a summary of the Cold War without crediting Ronald Reagan's strategy of support for authoritarians vs. totalitarians. And neither answered questions about America's relationship with Saudi-backed Islamist guerrillas in places like Chechnya and Central Asia, despite repeated queries from members of the audience.

The AEI event took place the day after Shamil Basayev's guerrillas attacked Nalchik, ending in tragedy. Russia had earlier complained of US support for the Chechen guerillas, including a Radio Free Europe reporter's interview broadcast on ABC television.

Given the mechanical performance by Graham, the top-ranking Bush appointee present, it seemed that the Bush administration is not listening to Russian concerns.

Yom Kippur FAQ

Tonight's sundown marks the start of Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement at the end of the Days of Awe. Here's an FAQ from Judaism 101:

Yom Kippur is probably the most important holiday of the Jewish year. Many Jews who do not observe any other Jewish custom will refrain from work, fast and/or attend synagogue services on this day. Yom Kippur occurs on the 10th day of Tishri. The holiday is instituted at Leviticus 23:26 et seq.

The name "Yom Kippur" means "Day of Atonement," and that pretty much explains what the holiday is. It is a day set aside to "afflict the soul," to atone for the sins of the past year. In Days of Awe, I mentioned the "books" in which G-d inscribes all of our names. On Yom Kippur, the judgment entered in these books is sealed. This day is, essentially, your last appeal, your last chance to change the judgment, to demonstrate your repentance and make amends.

As I noted in Days of Awe, Yom Kippur atones only for sins between man and G-d, not for sins against another person. To atone for sins against another person, you must first seek reconciliation with that person, righting the wrongs you committed against them if possible. That must all be done before Yom Kippur.

Yom Kippur is a complete Sabbath; no work can be performed on that day. It is well-known that you are supposed to refrain from eating and drinking (even water) on Yom Kippur. It is a complete, 25-hour fast beginning before sunset on the evening before Yom Kippur and ending after nightfall on the day of Yom Kippur. The Talmud also specifies additional restrictions that are less well-known: washing and bathing, anointing one's body (with cosmetics, deodorants, etc.), wearing leather shoes (Orthodox Jews routinely wear canvas sneakers under their dress clothes on Yom Kippur), and engaging in sexual relations are all prohibited on Yom Kippur.

As always, any of these restrictions can be lifted where a threat to life or health is involved. In fact, children under the age of nine and women in childbirth (from the time labor begins until three days after birth) are not permitted to fast, even if they want to. Older children and women from the third to the seventh day after childbirth are permitted to fast, but are permitted to break the fast if they feel the need to do so. People with other illnesses should consult a physician and a rabbi for advice.

Most of the holiday is spent in the synagogue, in prayer. In Orthodox synagogues, services begin early in the morning (8 or 9 AM) and continue until about 3 PM. People then usually go home for an afternoon nap and return around 5 or 6 PM for the afternoon and evening services, which continue until nightfall. The services end at nightfall, with the blowing of the tekiah gedolah, a long blast on the shofar. See Rosh Hashanah for more about the shofar and its characteristic blasts.

It is customary to wear white on the holiday, which symbolizes purity and calls to mind the promise that our sins shall be made as white as snow (Is. 1:18). Some people wear a kittel, the white robe in which the dead are buried.

So, no blogging tomorrow...

Rosh Hashana in Seattle

And another cousin's blog describes celebrating the Jewish New Year in Seattle...