Dear Left Hook Readers,

November is almost over and we still have a long way to go to hit our second anniversary fund drive goal- if we don't meet it by the end of this month, we'll have to severely curtail and scale back our work here.

Left Hook started out as and remains the only independent leftist youth journal in this country. And by leftist, we don't mean the kind of "pander to the conservatives" politics you see from the Democratic Party and its hangers-on.

From the very beginning - far before it became popular - we took a principled stand against the war in Iraq, predicting the emergence of serious resistance early as November 2003. We've been publicizing and projecting the anti-war movement from the front lines, publishing countless ground reports, highlighting cases of abuse, interviewing student anti-war activists and veterans of the Iraq war, and demolishing pro-war arguments.

Young writers here have taken up a much wider range of important issues as well: from the oppression of Palestinians to the drastic costs of higher education in America, from the administration's malice in Katrina to the larger role of capitalism and neoliberalism in producing such tragedies, it's all been covered here in political analysis, cultural commentary, interviews, ground reports, and more.

And our material here is fresh, original, and from a unique youth perspective: not the same standard fare stuff reprinted and recycled all over the internet.

Of course, you already know all that - otherwise you wouldn't be reading this space right now, where we receive hundreds of visitors daily thanks to word of mouth and larger sites constantly linking to our material.

But you undoubtedly also know that, as a small, independent leftist site, we cannot continue without the financial support of our readers - that means you! There's just two of us students here at the helm, and though the cost of Ramen noodles remains relatively stable, we have to maintain our (pretty modest) funding goals to keep bringing you the quality and content you've been regularly enjoying here.

So please help keep Left Hook alive and donate today! Be it $10 or $100 - every bit that you chip in helps. Thank you.

Sincerely,
The Editors
Derek Seidman and M. Junaid Alam

Searching for Judith Miller's Credibility: No Smoking Gun Here

Brian Fanelli

Though New York Times reporter Judith Miller could be considered a hero of journalism for refusing to reveal her sources concerning the CIA leak case, her prewar reporting was erroneous, and some of her statements about the leak incident make her seem like a loyalist to the administration. Miller is an aggressive, prize-winning journalist, but her reporting about Saddam Hussein's weapons capabilities before the war in Iraq began was wrong. Because Miller trusted poor sources, her credibility was tarnished and her reporting was untruthful. Recently, Miller's paper published a lengthy article about its prewar reporting and the CIA leak investigation. In the piece, the editors and journalists at the New York Times admitted that Miller's prewar reporting was misleading.

In the article, which was published on Oct. 16, Roger Cohen, who was the foreign editor for the paper during Miller's prewar reporting, said, "There was concern that she'd (Miller) been convinced in an unwarranted way, a way that was not holding up, of the possible existence of W.M.D."

In the same article, Miller apologized for her own reporting. "W.M.D.-I got it totally wrong," she said. "If your sources are wrong, you are wrong. I did the best job I could."

Yet, the reporter's apology is a bit late. Miller, like too many other journalists and politicians, sparked the notion that Iraq was a threat to the United States. Americans were led to believe that Hussein had stockpiles of weapons, and the Bush administration used such claims to justify the war. Now, troops are bogged down in a war that seems to have no purpose, since Iraq did not have stockpiles of weapons.

Miller's statements about the CIA leak debacle, which addresses the case for war, are also suspicious. The reporter was jailed for 85 days because she refused to reveal where she obtained information about Valerie Plame, an undercover CIA operative whose identity was leaked to the press and first published in a column by Robert Novak.

Plame's name was publicized after her husband, Joseph Wilson, published an article in the New York Times, which undercut the administration's case for war, specifically that Hussein was trying to acquire material from Niger to make weapons.

During her testimonies about the leak, Miller claimed that she does not recall how the words "Valerie Flame" and "Victoria Wilson," which are only different versions of Plame's identity, appeared in her notebooks.

"Valerie Flame" appeared in the same notebook that Miller used to interview Lewis Libby on July 8, 2003, according to the explanation the New York Times released on Oct. 16 about the leak and Miller's role.

Libby is Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff who was recently indicted on counts of obstruction of justice, making false statements and perjury. However, Miller told her paper that the name appears in a different part of the notebook than her interview with Libby.

The paper's explanation also stated that Miller talked to Libby again on July 12, 2003, and the name "Victoria Wilson" appears in the notes from that phone interview. Yet, Miller refused to reveal where the names came from.

If Miller knew that Plame's identity was leaked to smear Joseph Wilson because he was a critic of the war, she should have said something because it shows how far administration officials would go to sell the war and hush dissent.

Because of Miller's poor prewar reporting and her involvement with the leak investigation, her own staff has turned against her. One of the paper's most popular columnists, Maureen Dowd, criticized her co-worker in a column published Oct. 22. "Sorely in need of a tight editorial leash, (Miller) was kept on no leash at all, and that has hurt this paper and its trust with readers," Dowd wrote.

The paper's public editor, Byron Calame, also criticized Miller. "It seems to me whatever the limits put on her, the problems facing her inside and outside the newsroom will make it difficult for her to return to the newspaper as a reporter," he wrote in a column published Oct. 23.

Miller is anything but a martyr for journalism. Her prewar reporting was marked by several errors concerning Hussein's weapons capabilities because she trusted poor sources and did not question the information. Because of her problematic reporting, the reputation of The New York Times suffered.

Also, her testimonies during the leak investigation only make it seem as though she is no First Amendment hero, but a loyalist to the administration who was protecting key officials inside the White House.

For a democracy to exist and function, good journalists must hold leaders accountable and question motives for war and other policies. If journalists are going to present truth to the public, they must question sources and information.

If you found this piece useful, please keep us alive by making a donation to our second anniversary fund drive .

Brian Fanell, 21, is a fourth-year-student at West Chester University with a major in comparative literature and minors in journalism and creative writing. He is also a peace and global justice activist. He can be reached at BF566175@wcupa.edu.