[From the diaries by susanhu. You put Nancy Drew to shame, Man Eegee!] No wonder everyone is suffering from Pre-Indictment Stress Syndrome, new details emerge each day on the tangled and incestuous relationships that exist between the various government agencies in the D.C. Beltway.
Yesterday the Washington Post ran an article that gave us some new players from Dick Cheney’s office who are under investigation from Fitzgerald. Susanhu has a frontpage story on two of them–David Wurmser and Catherine/Cathie/Kathy Martin; catnip also did some sleuthing on John Hannah, who has apparently flipped and is now aiding the investigation.
This diary will be a springboard of information regarding a new cast-member, Jennifer Millerwise Dyck, who has served in several PR positions that are key to unraveling the Aspens. (picture taken from pbs.org archives)
More below…
[editor’s note, by Man Eegee] I corrected the spelling of her married last name. Mea culpa.
From yesterday’s WaPo:
The special prosecutor has personally interviewed numerous officials from the CIA, White House and State Department. In the process, he and his investigative team have talked to a number of Cheney aides, including Mary Matalin, his former strategist; Catherine Martin, his former communications adviser; and Jennifer Millerwise, his former spokeswoman. In the case of Millerwise, she talked with the prosecutor more than two years ago but never appeared before the grand jury, according to a person familiar with her situation.
Gotta love those anonymous sources.
Here is a spotlight on her biography, taken from the Government Executive website. Millerwise is listed as one of “The Decision Makers: Intelligence Agencies” alongside John Negroponte and Porter Goss.
Millerwise has a strong work pedigree for the Bush administration and its loyalists: She has been deputy communications director for the Bush-Cheney 2004 re-election campaign; Vice President Cheney’s press secretary; assistant press secretary in the Bush White House; and a regional press coordinator for the Republican National Committee’s “Victory 2000” campaign. Millerwise has also worked for Ari Fleischer (at the House Ways and Means Committee); for Spencer Abraham (while he was a senator for Michigan); and for her current boss, CIA Director Goss, when he was a member of Congress. Millerwise, who was Rep. Goss’s press secretary, became the CIA’s director of public affairs in January. “She is loyal, patriotic, and dedicated to our mission,” Goss says. “Her experience and relationships with the media bring a unique asset to the CIA.” Millerwise, 29, is from Pinconning, Mich. She has a degree in business administration and political science from Western Michigan University. (all emphasis mine)
I couldn’t put my finger on the reason this person peaked my interest until I did some googling and came across this AP article from Monday:
A New York Times reporter’s accounts of her private conversations with Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff capture a behind-the-scenes blame game between the White House and the CIA over the war in Iraq.
Cheney’s top aide, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, complained that the CIA and other agencies were trying to shift responsibility to the White House over the failure to find weapons of mass destruction after the U.S.-led invasion, reporter Judith Miller wrote in a first-person story in Sunday’s editions.
[snip]
“I recall that Mr. Libby was displeased with what he described as `selective leaking’ by the CIA,” Miller wrote. “He told me that the agency was engaged in a ‘hedging strategy’ to protect itself in case no weapons were found in Iraq.”
Amid the ultimately futile hunt for the banned weapons, Libby told Miller that the CIA’s strategy was, “If we find it, fine, if not, we hedged,” the reporter recounted.
Libby’s “frustration and anger” spilled over into their conversations, Miller wrote, with the Cheney aide describing leaking by the CIA as part of a “perverted war” over the war in Iraq.
So let me get this straight.
Jennifer Millerwise Dyck was
- at the White House serving as an Assistant Press Secretary to Ari Fleischer for the first 10 months of the Bush Administration (which included 9/11 and subsequent Iraq spin)
- then she was Dick Cheney’s press secretary during the period of CIA tension mentioned in the AP article above
- now she is serving as the CIA’s Director of Public Affairs.
Confused and intrigued? Me too. Let’s see what the power of Google can bring us in the comments below, please help if you can.
From the Press Release when she was named Cheney’s Press Secretary:
(emphasis mine) This whole mess WHIGs me out.
was that the White House Press Secretary misspelled “role” and “principal”. (Also, “communications-related” should have had a dash; “National Committee’s” should have had an apostrophe since it was possessive, not plural; and the penultimate sentence is a bad “comma splice.”)
How many mistakes can one fit into four paragraphs, when one’s job is “Press Secretary?”
You get the panda-of-the-day award* for your due diligence. And a 4. For your prize, go here.
*Reference to Eats, Shoots and Leaves.
Apparently I’m a “100% Stickler.” Strunk and White are proud.
Mary Matalin’s quote lacked quotation marks.
This whole mess is like a huge spider web. . .it seems almost everyone is intangled in it. MY, MY, My!
Good report, Manny. Thanks.
.
In a move people involved in the case read as a sign that the end is near, Fitzgerald’s spokesman yesterday told the Associated Press that the prosecutor planned to announce his conclusions in Washington, where the grand jury has been meeting, instead of Chicago, where the prosecutor is based. Some lawyers close to the case cited courthouse talk that Fitzgerald might announce his findings as early as tomorrow, though hard evidence about his intentions and timing remained elusive….
In the course of the investigation, Fitzgerald has been exposed to the intense, behind-the-scenes fight between Cheney’s office and the CIA over prewar intelligence and the vice president’s central role in compiling and then defending the intelligence used to justify the war. Miller, in a first-person account Sunday in the Times, recalled that Libby complained in a June 23, 2003, meeting in his office that the CIA was engaged in “selective leaking” and a “hedging strategy” that would make the agency look equally prescient whether or not weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq.
The special prosecutor has personally interviewed numerous officials from the CIA, White House and State Department. In the process, he and his investigative team have talked to a number of Cheney aides, including Mary Matalin, his former strategist; Catherine Martin, his former communications adviser; and Jennifer Millerwise, his former spokesman. In the case of Millerwise, she talked with the prosecutor more than two years ago but never appeared before the grand jury, according to a person familiar with her situation.
MSNBC Read more »»
At the Pentagon, officials also looked into Miller’s claim that she had a security clearance while working as an embedded reporter during the Iraq war, shortly before her conversations with Libby.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he was unaware of Miller having a security clearance. He said security clearances are covered by privacy laws, so he couldn’t talk about it.
But Whitman said reporters who were embedded with military units during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars signed ground rules in which they agreed not to make public sensitive or secret information that they learned while with the unit.
Judith Miller :: A Need To Know Basis – Security Clearance
~ Cross-posted from earlier diary by catnip Fitzgerald: Indictments by Wednesday?
▼▼▼ READ MY DIARY
The quote from earlier today that got everyone riled up.
Is it just me or does this quote simply say that rove “talked to the press about the Plame leak”?
Talking about the leak and being the leaker are two completely different things. Taken at face value this paragraph doesn’t do much for us. If there is more behind it to turn that about into a more pro-active word then let me know. Otherwise this ain’t as good as it initionally looked.
I read today as well this and in being that Rove was told what and when to leak info to the press by the WH. Geez I have read so much!!!!!!
Rather Rove talked to the press or whether he leaked is a matter of picking bones if you ask me…:o)
The fact that he talked to the press is enough to get him on something, I would think…
But the point on this one is whether you get the President on something. If Rove told Bush back in 2003 that he leaked Plame to the press and Bush told Fitzgerald the same thing he told the American people that he had no idea who leaked Plame then Bush is guilty of obstruction of justice.
If all Rove said to Bush was that he talked to the press about the leak then there is nothing on Bush.
Rove has hung himself on perjury if nothing else at this point. The question raised today is whether it can be proved that bush lied as well.
u r right, of course…
Actually, I disagree. Here’s why . . .
Do you play chess? In chess you learn many things: think several moves ahead; play defense; don’t rashly go after the king or queen — knock off the kings defenders first.
To get rid of Bush, get rid of Bush’s henchmen. If Rover goes, Bush goes. Of Cheney goes, Bush goes.
{My fingers naturally want to spell Rove’s name “Rover”, so I have decided not to resist it any longer. From now on, he is “Rover”.}
Sure… but that’s not the point I was making. People are running around saying that Bush has been caught in a lie based on this one paragraph. Unfortunately the language used in this paragraph (unless there is more to it which i am unaware of) does not prove that bush lied. That’s all I’m sayin’
As far as going after the pawns are concerned… you betcha! Word is that two of Cheney’s underlings have turned. They in turn will have had to give up higher ups in order to get anything for themselves. Since Libby and Rove have probably hung themselves even without lowly worms turning it leaves one to speculate that the underlings are handing over proof of conspiracy on the part of the entire White House Iraq Group.
But so far now burning bush that I can see.
Josh Marshall links to a Washington Post story with one paragraph about Ms. Millerwise:
Marshall continues …
Jinx! thanks cotterperson
Go read it… I don’t have time right now. I have a feeling it may be pertinent.
that she was thrown into the mix for a purpose:
This is tinfoil-hat territory, but relevant since it involves one of her many job changes. Note that she worked for Porter Goss when he was a congressman. If I’m not mistaken, her stints at the White House and Cheney’s office are sandwiched by her two Goss jobs (congress and C.I.A.)
The article is from the Washington Times’ Bill Gertz, but the link is dead. I found it via google on an Intelligence Forum archive
She has a track record of contacting news outlets to help mold their stories to become more misAdministration-friendly.
Exhibit A from the Toronto Star on April 8, 2003 via CommonDreams.org
I feel like we are finally starting to gaze into Pandora’s box.
Who IS she? Does anyone else find it odd that a 23-year-old would be Press Secretary to a heavyweight congressperson like Goss? If she’s 29 now, and she held that position prior to working on the 2000 Bush campaign, she can’t have been more than a couple of years out of college. Western Michigan University, no less…
I’m tryin to figure out…she has had some top jobs with many key players. Let us know if you find anything!
at DailyKos. Hopefully someone there can help out with the sleuthing.
Recommends are appreciated!
From Link
[Emphasis added]
Going to Western Michigan University Political Science page I found
Asst. Professor Pete Wielhouwer whose blurb reads, in part,
Which sounds interesting.
Focusing on Asst. Professor Peter Wielhouwer we find he was the past program chair for the Southwestern Political Science Association (webpage here).
At the January 2005 Conference of the SWPSA we find the following:
PS56: ROUND TABLE: POLITICAL CONSULTANTS DISCUSS THE 2004 ELECTIONS
Moderator: Peter W. Wielhouwer, Campaign Ethics
Consulting Participants:
Ray Strother, Strother Duffy Strother
Carlyle Gregory, The Carlyle Gregory Company
Gerry Tyson, The Tyson Organization
Tom Edmonds, Edmonds, Hackney & Associates
Looking at the “Carlyle Gregory Company” we find:
REMEMBER THIS GUY IS ON A CAMPAIGN ETHICS PANEL!
More can be found here (This is an HTML version of a pdf document.)
So lets look at good old Ray Strother …
Can’t find any information about their clients.
Edmonds,Hackney & Associates:
“
And we that:
This is inconclusive but it gives some rather neat starting points for further research to unravel the connections Ms. Dyck used to land her various jobs.
EXCELLENT work AT! Thanks so much.
this is fun.
Now we need find evidence Wielhouwer was Dyck’s mentor at WMU.
Dyck is her married name, and I’ve only found recent references to it. I’ve been doing searches for ‘Jennifer Millerwise’. I wouldn’t be surprised, however, if Mr. Dyck is someone connected to the beltway (pure tinfoil speculation)
Right. I’m tired.
Aug. 27, in Harbor Springs, Michigan, to Paul Bradley Dyck. Link here. He apparently works in the White House, too– both of them are listed here on the White House Paychecks page on WaPo.
Possible sister, Molly Millerwise, spokesman for the Treasury. Link here.
Father may be John Millerwise, owner of Mallard Lumber in Pinconning, Michigan. Cached information available via Zoominfo.
A student of mine told me that I was in a blog, and I couldn’t believe it!
For the record, I don’t know Jennifer Millerwise Dyck. I just arrived at WMU this past summer. She and I may have crossed paths at some conservative event in the past, but I have no knowledge of it. Given her activism in the GOP, though, we may have some common contacts.
Regarding the 2005 SWPSA conference parsed above, I would note that in putting together that panel (on the 2004 elections, not on campaign ethics) I found two D (Ray Strother and Gerry Tyson) and two R (Carlyle Gregory and Tom Edmunds) consultants to talk, in order to keep the conversation balanced.
On unraveling the landing of political jobs, both parties highly value loyalty and quality of work. My guess is JMD is both loyal and talented, as are lots of people on both sides of the aisle. Networking is the way of the political world, and everyone does it!
I found doing the above research.
So I thought I’d share it!
From Fire Dog Lake.
(Fire Dog Lake is run by women so don’t shoot the poster. I’m but a poor humble blogger & etc etc etc)