Bloodless Coup

What Judy Miller Never Wrote in the Summer of '01

This is an interesting piece - Judith Miller recounts following the threat of al Qaeda from July 2001 forward, but never writing the big story she hoped to write prior to the attacks. It's clear that many in the intelligence community were terribly worried about an attack (particularly around the 4th of July). This isn't news. Countless works have pointed out the veritable obsession that George Tenet and Richard Clarke had with al Qaeda prior to 9/11 (with good reason it turns it, but Condi and Rummy weren't all that worried ... too bad for us). But the tale of why Miller didn't write about that threat that summer is rather interesting for what it says about journalism, journalists, and how national security issues are covered by the press.