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With Admiration, kiss, kiss, Lewis Libby
- From: JJR
Subject: Aspen or Aspin?
Date: 11-29-2005
I've received a few anonymous messages regarding the "kiss, kiss, Lewis Libby" article prompting some additional thought I'll share below. I'll also update the story based upon new information.
Judy and Lewis as lovers?
According to news reports, Judy has a history of having intimate relationships with sources. Bill Keller, executive editor of the NYT, in a recent memo: "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 [of Miller]." That led me to speculate that Miller may have had an intimate relationship with Libby. Judy herself did not miss the implications of the Keller memo and strongly denied an intimate relationship with Libby. Also, as a term of her separation agreement with NYT, she required Bill Keller to pen a clarification of his earlier memo making clear there was no "improper relationship" with Libby. Link. On top of the Judy denial is the twisted Lewis Libby novel (which I learned about after writing the Miller-Libby article). Based upon the topics contained in his prose (homoeroticism, incest and bestiality), one must question Lewis Libby's sexual orientation. Taken together, I'm willing to back off the theory that Miller and Libby were one-time lovers.
"Out West"?
In his jailhouse letter to Judy, Lewis Libby penned the memorable line: "Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them." Does Judy vacation "out west" in the mountains where aspens are found? She doesn't share her vacation plans with me but there is strong evidence the answer is "no". Why? According to Judy's own account of her testimony before the grand jury, under questioning by Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald when asked about this bizarre quote from the Libby letter, she makes no mention of vacationing out west. Furthermore, in later public appearances, again no mention of vacationing out west. If this were a true statement (i.e., she vacationed out west), it would diffuse an otherwise quite odd statement coming from Libby to her. She has every incentive to clear up the ambiguity but, instead, just fueled the fire by telling Fitzgerald of a bizarre meeting with Lewis Libby in August of 2003 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming at a rodeo.
If Judy Miller does not vacation out west where aspens grow, then Lewis Libby is speaking in code to her. I believe this to be the case. What does the code mean?
The Libby letter starts off with puffery, a Judy ass-kiss. Then Libby blatantly tells Judy what testimony he expects from her at the grand jury (witness tampering?). After telling Judy what testimony he expects, Libby closes with the bizarre quote. Let's break it down and I'll give my best informed guess at cracking the code.
| Libby Quote | Interpretation |
| Out west, where you vacation | Erroneous comment
indicating that the message is code |
| the aspens | aspens = Les Aspin = undercover neocons
(see below) |
| will be turning | undercover neocons changing direction or strategy to counterattack the Fitzgerald investigation??? |
| turn in clusters, because their roots connect them | Judy, you are an undercover neocon as was Les Aspin, connected with us at the roots, turn with us (i.e., join the fight against Fitzgerald). |
"Aspen" = Les Aspin = undercover neocon?
Of particular interest in the comments I received was my theory that Lewis Libby was referring to Les Aspin (Judy Miller's former boyfriend) in his famous jailhouse letter to Judy. If one googles "les aspin libby", it appears a few others on net also made the connection between Libby's reference to "aspens" and Les Aspin. Link 1, Link 2 and Link 3.
Why does it make senses that "aspen" is a coded reference by Libby to "Les Aspin"? The theory starts with the proposition that Les Aspin was a closet neocon. Here is the case I have collected for Les Aspin as neocon:
- Educated at Yale (class of 1960)--alma mater of George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Lewis Libby, and Paul Wolfwitz was on the faculty from 1970-1972.
- Army officer serving in Pentagon (1966-1968).
- Aspin was thought of as a "Scoop" Jackson (D-WA) type of Democrat: socially liberal, hawk on defense. In fact, Les Aspin received the Henry M. “Scoop” Jackson Distinguished Service Award in 1992. Other recipients of this award include Dick Cheney (1991) and Paul Wolfowitz (2002). Sen. Jackson's staff was something of a breeding ground for neocons: Paul Wolfwitz, Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, and Douglas Feith are all former staff members.
- As a Congressman, he became chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services and supported the Reagan administration's policies on the MX missile and aid to the Nicaraguan Contras (both strongly opposed by his own party). Link
- Aspin was an advocate of "counterproliferation"--i.e., providing military options to counter the acquisition and use of WMD by regional adversaries. Link. Was this not the Bush / neocon rationale for invading Iraq? Additional Link.
- Aspin was on the advisory board of the Coalition for a Democratic Majority founded in 1972 by Scoop Jackson. Link.
IMHO, it's a plausible argument that Aspin was a sleeper agent for the neocon movement but there is no smoking gun. If Les Aspen was a closet neocon, this adds significance to Judy Miller's time as Aspin's live-in girlfriend and handy news outlet. One would expect that she was aware of Aspin's political affiliations. Further, might one trace her rightward bent in reporting to that point? Was Judy recruited through Les Aspin as a sleeper neocon embedded in the MSM? That would explain her spectacular degree of access inside the government once all the former Scoop Jackson aides came to power in the administration of George H. Bush. It would also mean that Judy would understand Libby's allusion to "aspen" in the jailhouse letter.
August 2003 meeting in Jackson Hole, WY
What were Judy Miller and Scooter Libby doing in Jackson Hole at a rodeo in August of 2003? She never explains this. Only a child would believe it was a chance meeting. As one who used to question witnesses under oath for a living, I certainly expect (and hope) that Patrick Fitzgerald inquired along the following lines in response to this revelation: Why did you go to Jackson Hole in August of 2003? Was it at the request of Mr. Libby? Did you meet with the Vice President while in Jackson Hole? What other administration officials, if any, did you meet with while there? How long did you meet with Mr. Libby while in Jackson Hole? Specifically when and where and how many times? Substance of conversations with Mr. Libby? Judy doesn't tell us any of this and no hints are found in the indictment so we don't know for sure.
Is there any other significance to August, 2003 in relation to the Valerie Plame affair? Yes, there is. On July 30, 2003, the CIA filed a report of a potential crime with the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice. FN1. That ultimately set in motion the criminal investigation of the White House relative to the leak by DOJ / FBI. Thus, in August of 2003, Libby and the rest of the WHIG cabal would have been on notice that the law was on their trail. Did Libby request a meeting with Miller outside of Washington to get their stories straight on the coming Valerie Flame investigation? It appears to be a reasonable inference from the facts but nothing to this effect has popped up out of the Fitzgerald investigation or other news stories as yet.
Judy's revelation of the Jackson Hole meeting?
This is perplexing. Why did she even discuss it before the grand jury? It is in her interest to appear an objective reporter. Further, best not to entwine yourself with one under criminal investigation by the DOJ. Fitzgerald asks her what she thinks Libby meant by the above-quoted sentence: "Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning ... ." If she did vacation out west, she could have given that as an answer. End of story. If she did not vacation out west, she could have responded, simply, "I do not know". Instead, she relates an incident totally unrelated to aspens the trees: I had just come from a conference at Aspen, the city, and met Lewis Libby in Jackson Hole, WY. Why? Consider this, what if Libby issued a veiled threat to Miller to cooperate?
Les Aspin was ostensibly removed as Clinton's Secretary of Defense for refusing to send armor to the US Rangers in Somalia prior to the famous "Black Hawk Down" incident in Mogadishu, 1993 and the "don't ask, don't tell" policy relative to gays in the military. However, from the neocon perspective, Bill Clinton committed two great sins and Les Aspin played a heavy hand in both: (a) overall reduction in military budget Link and (b) the downgrade of Reagan SDIO program (aka "Star Wars"), Link 1 and Link 2. Needless to say, the neocons were not pleased with developments on Aspin's watch. If one remembers back, Aspin was savaged by the media for his performance as Secretary of Defense mainly over the "don't ask, don't tell" policy and the failure to send armor to Somalia. But Clinton had made a campaign promise to the gay community to do something for gays serving in the US military. "Don't ask, don't tell" was the minimum, politically, Clinton would accept from Aspin. His hands were tied. As to the armor for US troops in Somalia, the request from the commanders in Somalia came so close in time to the ambush in 1993 that the armor never would have reached the troops had Aspin agreed. Thus, Aspin's decision played no role in the deaths of the Rangers in Mogadishu but that did not stop the critics. They pounded him nonetheless. Did the neocons negatively manipulate media coverage of Aspin? They certainly have manipulated media coverage during both Bush Administrations so it is possible they were able to do so during the Clinton years as well.
Sorry for the longwinded leadup. If the neocons pushed Les Aspin out of office for failure to toe the party line, it then makes sense that Libby is threatening retribution against Judith Miller through the Aspin reference (i.e., we'll do you the way we did your old boyfriend Les Aspin). He died of a stroke less than 2 years after his ouster as Sec. Def. In this context, Judy Miller's revelation to the grand jury that she met with Scooter Libby in Jackson Hole could constitute a message to the neocons that two can play at this game. Judy could be telling Scooter and company that she too has ammunition against them so "back off". I eagerly await her public testimony in the federal trial of Scooter Libby.
Footnote 1: We also have the public statements at this time from the White House to the effect that the leakers will be crucified if caught. "If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration." - White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, Sept. 29, 2003. "If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it, and we'll take the appropriate action." - President Bush, Sept. 30, 2003 Link.
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