Formerly silent Judith Miller now telling interesting tale

In an interview with AlterNet, former New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who spent 85 days in jail for refusing to divulge her source in the Plame case, tells an interesting--and ignored--story about September 11, 2001.

Miller, who worked for years on terrorism-related stories, was working on a special project in 2000 and 2001--describing and analyzing al Qaida. When the USS Cole was attacked, Miller believed that al Qaida was responsible. There was some concern that there might be an attack on the U.S. on July 4, 2001, and Miller describes two government agencies at odds about the potential attacker: The intelligence experts did not think that al Qaida posed much of a threat, but the counter-terrorism experts believed otherwise. Miller says that the White House tended to label the counter-terrrorism crowd as "extremist."

That July 4th weekend, Miller says she spoke with a source who told her about an intercept that had been picked up. The people having the conversation--two members of al Qaida--were disappointed because the U.S. had not chosen to retaliate more seriously against the attack on the USS Cole. One then said "Don't worry; we're planning something so big now that the U.S. will have to respond."

Those who remember hearing about this incident a few years ago recall that Miller's story never ran in the Times. She presented the idea to her editor, they both agreed that more details were needed, and Miller was never able to get those details. She was not only very busy with other projects, but she ran into a wall every time she tried to pin down details.

The AlterNet interview focuses on what would have happened if the Times had run the story without the details that were missing. But a more important consideration is the lingering question of why the government did not or could not pursue the details of the conversation between the al Qaida members. The conflict and confusion among various government agencies--laid out clearly in Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies--made it impossible for the nation to be prepared for a major terrorist attack. I haven't noticed any decrease in that conflict and confusion.