My friend Mumtaz, president of the International Islamic University in Islamabad, sent me this (I cite with his permission): "Dear As'ad: I liked
your comments on "Being quoted in the Western Press," especially your encounter
with Judith Miller. You probably remember she published in the 1990s in the NYT
magazine an article on Sudan & political Islam and gave several direct
quotes from Hasan Turabi, saying, in effect, "Turabi told me." I was in
Khartoum a few weeks after that and Turabi flatly denied that he met her or
talked to her. Several months after that she was on NPR and repeated the same
quotes from Turabi. I was in my office listening to the NPR. I called and
luckily got the line. I told her that she was lying and that she never met
Turabi & talked to him. Her only response was that she would not respond to
this insult.
Anyway, a few
months after that call I received an invitation from Inter-American Defense
College in DC to be a part of a panel on the Palestine issue. I asked who was
the other panelist. I was told they have asked Judith Miller to be my fellow
panelist. I loved it but I was told only a week before the scheduled session
that when she was told about my participation in the panel, she declined."