ROBERTS IN; MILLER OUT

Rove, Libby, Cheney and others wait in the bushes for Joe Wilson to come out of Senate hearings


Washington (WPI) - Once John Roberts was sworn in as the new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Vice President Dick Cheney gave the green light to his Chief of Staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to give a waiver to New York Times reporter Judy Miller, releasing her from jail.

The reporter had been incarcerated for three months for refusing to tell prosecutors the name of her source on a story she contemplated writing about the AWOL WMDs in Iraq.

Miller, a principle mouthpiece for the administration’s fanciful argument to invade Iraq, met Libby just two days after former Ambassador Joe Wilson blasted the Bush administration asserting that the allegations of uranium sales in Africa were pure fiction. Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA operative and it was Rove and Libby who gave that fact to reporters, including Miller, thereby destroying Plame’s career and endangering her contacts and colleagues.

Until a few months ago, the White House maintained that Libby and presidential aide Karl Rove were not involved in leaking the identity of Plame. While rumors lit up the internet, the quiescent media carried that version of events pending action on a broad spectrum of issues, including limits on media ownership, which are pending before the FCC.

White House spokesman, Scott McCellen responding to a question from the foreign press, said, “Vice President Cheney in consultation with Assistant Chief of Staff, Karl Rove, and other high ranking White House officials, have determined that this was the appropriate moment to release Ms. Miller from any perceived obligations of confidentiality. If there are to be prosecutions in the matter Attorney General Gonzales desires to move the process through the various courts as quickly as possible.”

Later, responding to another question, McCellen said, “Presidential pardons are always a complicated issue. The public is frequently confused by them. We prefer to see this matter resolved in the courts.”

"We also want to commend Judy Miller for her staunch defence of freedom of the press and asure her that the White House acted a swiftly as possible to relieve her discomfort from imprisonment. She's a good soldier and a tough cookie!" he added.