Just as it appears the Able Danger story may be slipping into the abyss of DC power plays, the Plame-Wilson show opens up with it’s fall season premiere! Judith Miller has decided to testify:

udith Miller, the reporter for The New York Times who has been jailed since July 6 for refusing to testify in the C.I.A. leak case, was released Thursday from a Virginia detention center after she and her lawyers reached an agreement with a federal prosecutor in which she would testify before a grand jury investigating the case, the publisher and the executive editor of the paper said.

Ms. Miller was freed after spending more than 12 weeks in jail, during which she refused to cooperate with the inquiry. Her decision to testify was made after she had obtained what she described as a waiver offered “voluntarily and personally” by a source who said she was no longer bound by any pledge of confidentiality she had made to him. Ms. Miller said the source had made clear that he genuinely wanted her to testify.

That source was I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, according to people who have been officially briefed on the case. Ms. Miller met with Mr. Libby on July 8, 2003, and talked with him by telephone later that week, they said.

This is interesting and could blow a lot holes into some theories out there -mine included. I really doubted Libby was the reason Miller would not testify. Just like the bogus claim by Matt Cooper, who lied to the cameras when he tried to explain his change of heart, I am not buying the media fantasies.

I have posted on Plame-Wilson for a long time here, and my contention is the prosecutor has something besides a weak case about regarding Northern Virginia gossip. Because trust me on some of this – Valerie Plame’s employer was most likely a well known secret in her social circles.

I have no proof except the unverified statement on TV last spring by Andrea Mitchell that she that many people knew Valerie was CIA. All I can tell you is I spent my child growing up outside the gates of Langley VA and knew lots of parents in the CIA. It was pretty clear, if unspoken, who worked at Langley. Heck, my High School is right around the corner from it and you could see people queued up in the morning driving in.

So I would be surprised if this is about Valerie’s employment status. The statute of law everyone sites does not cover rumors, let alone accurate rumors. As Tom Maguire has repeatedly pointed out, the real liars in this could be the NY Times

“Judy has been unwavering in her commitment to protect the confidentiality of her source,” Mr. Sulzberger said. “We are very pleased that she has finally received a direct and uncoerced waiver, both by phone and in writing, releasing her from any claim of confidentiality and enabling her to testify.”

Well if she spent all that time in jail to protect Libby it was a big waste of time!

Anyway, my theory is Plame and possibly her rogue compatriots at the CIA are the ones on the hot seat for divulging classified data to the press. Wilson could also be caught up in this. The reasoning is simple.

All intelligence gathered on Saddam’s nuclear weapons intentions is classified – including Wilson’s report he blabbed to the world when he decided a lowly ambassador should take control of the country from the elected President. Also, the contacts used in country to gather information are classified. The roles of the embassy personal in intelligence is classified. Valerie’s under cover role and activities prior to their twins arriving and her stint at CIA HQ was classified.

Much of the background details in the press and blabbed by Joe Wilson himself were considered classified. Miller is only going to discuss her comments to Libby. But if she expressed knowledge of classified information to Libby for administration confirmation – then the entire ‘agreement’ cracks open. Fitzgerald will be free to pursue any topic she brought up with Libby, even if that leads him to her ‘other sources’. One of which is most likely the one and only Valerie Plame.

Let’s see what happens when she comes out of the grand jury. If she looks like she has seen a ghost, it probably means she gave up the ghost.