Judith Miller '69 Shares Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting Post-9/11

New York, N.Y. April 25, 2002— Senior writer at the New York Times Judith Miller ’69 is part of a team of ten reporters that recently received a Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the Middle East after September 11.

In two series of articles, Times reporters shed light on the Muslim terrorists dedicated to holy war against the West. The first series, "Holy Warriors," which appeared in the Times eight months before September 11, described a spreading terror network led by a cunning fanatic with a deep hatred of America. The second series, "Missed Signals," was published in December, 11 months later, and examined how government officials in America and abroad failed to forecast the gathering storm of Muslim terrorists. It covered Saudi Arabia’s exportation of jihad fighters, the spread of the terror cells in Europe and the record of the Bush and Clinton administrations handling terrorist threats.

Miller covers national security issues with a special emphasis on the Middle East and weapons of mass destruction. In 1977, she joined the Times’ Washington Bureau, where she covered the securities industry and foreign affairs, with a focus on the Middle East and nuclear proliferation issues. In 1983, Miller became the first woman to be named chief of the Times' bureau in Cairo, Egypt, responsible for covering the Arab world. In 1987-88, she returned to Washington as the Washington Bureau's news editor and deputy bureau chief. In October 1990, Miller was named special correspondent to the Persian Gulf crisis, and after that, the Times' Sunday Magazine's special correspondent. She has covered Osama bin Laden since 1993.

Miller has written four books and contributed chapters to several others. Her latest book, Germs: Biological Weapons and America's Secret War, topped the Times best seller list. Based on hundreds of interviews with scientists and senior officials, including former president Clinton, as well as on recently declassified documents, Germs investigates bio-warriors at work at their trade and shows how such countries as Iran, Iraq, and North Korea could make germs the weapon of the twenty-first century.

Her previous book, God Has Ninety-Nine Names, explores the spread of Islamic extremism in ten Middle Eastern countries, including Israel and Iran. Miller interviewed dozens of people—heads of state, government officials, leaders of Islamic movements, intellectuals, businessmen, and ordinary men and women who are being drawn by passion and ambition into the vortex of Islamic politics.
Miller has appeared as an expert on Middle Eastern and national security affairs on national TV news and public affairs shows including Sixty Minutes, Oprah, ABC's Nightline, The Today Show, and The Charlie Rose Show. She lectures on the Middle East, Islam, national security, and terrorism.

Born in New York City, Miller grew up in Miami and Los Angeles, where she graduated from Hollywood High School. She has a bachelor's degree from Barnard and a Master’s from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

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