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Aaron Hoffstein
SPECIAL TO THINK & ASK
NEW YORK CITY
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Unbeknown to him, Jeffrey Allen Miller, a veteran journalist of 20 years, was about to hit the biggest story of his career in September 2002. He'd left journalism behind for a well-paying corporate job in e-commerce.
Miller admits that he did not pay attention to politics prior to terrorist attacks in New York City on 11 September 2001. "Life does get in the way of those high-level things, like politics, that have nothing to do with our day-to-day living," Miller said.
"Between [former] President Clinton's blowjob, and then [President George W] Bush's stolen election, I decided to ignore politics all together and just focus upon my own life and job," Miller said. At that time, Miller had worked at International Business Machines (IBM) for seven years.
But only hours after 9/11 Miller, like many Manhattanites, signed up to volunteer at Ground Zero. "They called me two weeks later, " and Miller served the first weekend in October 2001 helping cook food, wash laundry, and spend some quality time joking with the firemen and rescue workers at Ground Zero. "No one can truly imagine how horrific their job was. The event organizers told us when we arrived, that the guys in the pit needed love and support during their breaks, 'joke with them, hug them,' they told us."
While Miller volunteered that weekend news broke that the United States had invaded Afghanistan. "My first question was 'why?' I'm walking past the remains of the World Trade Center, I can smell burning bodies here, and our government is off invading a country -- why aren't they here helping New York City rebuild?"
One week after his volunteer stint, Miller went to Paris for a two month assignment. "It was like night and day," Miller says about the news in France. "Afghanistan isn't the enemy, the United States is, and I'm sitting here wondering how anyone can say such a thing." During the USA's traditional celebration of Thanksgiving, news broke of a different kind in France -- "They reported that the U.S. military repaired oil lines in Afghanistan and were quickly building a pipeline from the Caspian Sea across Afghanistan." Miller thought the story was so far from truth it could only be a joke.
When Miller return to the States, there had been no mention of the story whatsoever; although a press release on the White House's website confirmed what he'd heard in the French press.
"It was all there on the White House's site, Bush was proud of oil flowing through Afghanistan, and the U.S.-military was guarding and building the new pipeline with 'contractors,' he said so in a quote on November 25th, while everyone is out buying Christmas gifts."
Miller started investigating on his own. Six months later, he compiled enough information to write a story that would eventually turn his life upside down -- not the lives of those he quotes. "My own tax dollars are funding well-thought-out business plans that will help a chosen few," Miller said.
First titled "Eyes of a Dictator," the story evolved and was later re-titled "Afghanistan, Iraq: Bush, Cheney Target Terror." At that time in media, only The New Yorker magazine was working on a story that might seem "unpatriotic," said Miller; "They claimed that Osama bin Laden was allowed to escape from Afghanistan while the military watched."
However, bin Laden's escape, true or not, was a scoop for the The New Yorker. "Under our very noses, the Federal government, for years, has been working on this oil business in the Middle East. And this White House, far more so than Clinton or Bush Sr., had placed [oil industry] specialists in key positions of power," Miller said. "Richard Cheney was key to the operation's success."
Why the mainstream press did not address the conflict of interests apparent to these events of 9/11, the reasons escaped Miller.
He released the story to 2,100 press agencies worldwide and sent it to all members of Congress and to all 50 state governor offices for the first anniversary of 9/11.
"I'd checked with some journalist friends and no one had thought to search for the information I discussed in the story," Miller said. "Their tone in the newsroom at that time was not to make waves on the second anniversary of 9/11." The Bangladesh Times printed the story in September 2002, The Guardian expressed interest, but instead produced their own version in December that same year as it related more to their own Prime Minister Tony Blair.
His peers cautioned Miller; "They were actually concerned for my safety after they read the story; but I said, 'hey, wait a minute, this information is all public anyone with half-a-brain could have found the same.'" Plus, as a journalist, Miller thought that the government had far more duties than trying to silence one journalist.
No media in the United States picked up the story; however, Miller did receive a response from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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