Bloggers fuel Libby letter conspiracies
We here at Blogma are wary of even peripherally touching such hot-button political issues as what some call (Valerie) Plame-gate. We try to stick to buzzing issues that have some sort of technology angle and avoid blogging blogs that spin general interest news.
Sometimes, however, bloggers are the subject of such general interest news, and we would be remiss in our job if we didn't mention their contribution.
Such is the case with the mostly liberal bloggers who are fueling conspiracy theories through their online analysis of a letter Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, wrote to Judith Miller. Miller is the New York Times reporter who spent 85 days in prison rather than reveal Libby as her confidential source in the Plame leak case.
While some pundits are debating the significance of the letter's friendly, if not flowery tone, bloggers read into the letter's ending: "You went to jail in the summer. It is fall now. You will have stories to cover--Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program. Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work--and life."
Bloggers wondered, among other things, if the "aspens" reference was some sort of code for a meeting of Neocons and or/Iraqi exiles in Aspen, Colo., that some say Miller might have attended.
Blog community response:
"Since all neo-cons are connected by their roots and grow in clusters, why pull the roots out of two neo-cons, when you can pull the roots out of only one (Karl Rove) and overall still have a healthier forest of (neo-cons) aspens. Unfortunately for Libby, it appears Miller told the truth to the Grand Jury and uprooted yet another neo-con in this ongoing investigation."
--BlogCritics.org
"Aspens?' 'Turning in clusters'?' 'Come back to reporting--and life'? No one writes like that, especially if you're a VP Chief of Staff writing to a jailed NYT reporter... unless it's a code. Could have any number of meanings, but it's likely sinister if you think about it. And saying 'You'll have...biological threats' to report on? How does he know? All very, very odd, don't you think?"
-- Seachief on The Huffington Post
"There is already a big recommended diary on the bizarre closing graf of Libby's letter, which may be a veiled threat, a reference to cooking up more stories on Iran's 'WMD', or an invocation of some other VRWC...Does this have to do with the Aspen Institute, as some have said? Or with the recent meeting in Aspen discussed by Novak (in which Rove and Wolfowitz were in attendance...)?"
--Daily Kos