Journalism scoops or shortcuts?

Police Chief William J. Bratton’s decision to ask ABC network anchor John Miller to join the LAPD as his special assistant in charge of homeland security has raised questions about whether the practice of journalism confers policymaking credentials.

It’s a mildly interesting issue -- something to be discussed politely at a conference, sometime, somewhere. The more serious and immediate question is whether the journalistic credentials Bratton believes Miller brings to this assignment are what they seem to be.

This week, the chief told Times staff writer Andrew Blankstein that Miller’s qualifications to advise him include having interviewed Osama bin Laden in May 1998 -- two months before the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania -- and co-writing a bestselling book, “The Cell: Inside the 9/11 Plot and Why the FBI and the CIA Failed to Stop It.”

Friday, when asked about Miller’s qualifications on homeland security, Bratton -- the former New York City police commissioner -- called his longtime friend and onetime spokesman “one of the top experts on that issue.” Bratton told reporters, “John’s skills transcend the skills needed in your profession. He was a key architect to our crime reduction strategy. He has the best Rolodex in America.”

But a cursory review of the record shows that while Miller videotaped a statement by Bin Laden, he did not interview him.

“The Cell” contains a lengthy account, including extended quotations from the Al Qaeda leader. What it does not include are the questions Miller put to Bin Laden, since he didn’t ask any. Unable to understand Arabic and forbidden simultaneous translation, the ABC correspondent simply sat through the affair, trying to look engaged and bobbing his head. Miller gave an account of the incident earlier this year to Associated Press reporter David Bauder, who wrote:

“Not knowing Arabic, and not having Bin Laden’s words immediately translated, Miller tried to keep eye contact by nodding at his words and feigning fascination at what he said.

“When the interview was over, Miller’s translator told him he had a big story -- Bin Laden had said he was going to kill as many Americans as he could.

“What was I doing when he was saying that?” Miller asked his translator.

“You were nodding in agreement,” he replied.

If an outtake from “Broadcast News” springs to mind, you are not alone. All that’s missing is the tear.

Moreover, by his own account in “The Cell,” Miller subsequently allowed Bin Laden’s then-military chief, Mohamed Atef, to edit the tape, obscuring the faces of anyone Al Qaeda did not want photographed.

Most working journalists wouldn’t call that an interview. Interviews contain dialogue, and, most crucially, follow-up questions. The final footage is not edited by the subject. What Miller describes is a well-managed photo op. If participating in one is a valid credential, then Bratton might consider recruiting additional aides from the staff of Al Jazeera, which not only accepts electronic dictation from Bin Laden, but also understands what he is saying.

Besides, who knows who’s in their Rolodex?

More troubling, at least one of the key chapters of Miller’s book, which was published in June 2002, contains 25 instances in which the authors’ version is remarkably similar to a story by Times staff writer Terry McDermott, which appeared on Jan. 27.

Even by the slapdash standards of contemporary nonfiction publishing, “The Cell,” which was published by Disney’s Hyperion, is a curious piece of work, lacking much of the normal apparatus of integrity, such as a bibliography, footnotes or standard attributions. The importance of such documentation has increased in recent years, as publishing houses have abdicated nearly all responsibility for fact-checking nonfiction manuscripts.

According to a brief authors’ note, Miller and his collaborators -- New York-based crime reporter Michael Stone and Chris Mitchell, a writer and editor -- shared “the reporting and writing responsibilities.” Mitchell is credited with digesting “reams of raw notes from reporting done in the field by colleagues we contracted to chase down leads in Europe, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.” None of those contract players is named, though a brief acknowledgment preceding the authors’ note names a number of law enforcement sources and some of Miller’s ABC colleagues, who contributed unspecified “notes” and “sources.”

McDermott’s name does not appear. However, in the book’s 16th chapter -- titled “Atta” -- a single brief quotation is attributed to the work of an unidentified Los Angeles Times reporter. In fact, it was taken from McDermott’s exhaustively reported profile of terrorist Mohamed Atta. There are more than two dozen quotes, descriptions and characterizations in “The Cell” whose similarity to McDermott’s work ranges from bemusing to disconcerting.

Here is an excerpt from McDermott’s profile, which included firsthand reporting on Atta’s life in Hamburg, Germany:

“ ‘It was a good day when Mohamed wasn’t home,’ she said.”

This is from the book:

“ ‘It was a good day when Mohamed wasn’t home,’ she said.”

This is from The Times:

“The first roommate tried early on to loosen Atta up. He took Atta to a showing of Disney’s animated film ‘The Jungle Book.’ Atta became so upset at the crowd’s unruliness before the film began that he seethed in his seat, muttering over and over in disgust, ‘Chaos, chaos.’

“He didn’t speak a word during or after the film, and when they arrived back at the apartment, he stomped into his bedroom and slammed the door behind him.”

Here are the same events, as recounted in Miller, Stone and Mitchell’s book:

“The first roommate, an immigrant himself, made an effort to connect, inviting Atta once in the early days to join him at a screening of the Disney children’s movie ‘The Jungle Book.’ Kipling koans and singing bears apparently didn’t agree with the quiet Egyptian. Before the film even started, Atta scowled at the audience’s unruliness, muttering, ‘Chaos, chaos,’ as he huddled anxiously in his seat. On the walk back to the apartment, he said nothing, then put a capper on the evening by slamming his bedroom door behind him.”

This is from The Times:

“ ‘He was reluctant to any pleasure,” the roommate said. “We never shared food. We shared dishes. Mostly, he messed them up and I cleaned them.’

“Atta sometimes prepared a meal by boiling potatoes whole, scraping the skins away, then smashing them into a mound. He would eat this little potato mountain, without reheating it, for a week or more, sticking his fork into it and shoving the whole assembly back into the refrigerator when he finished a meal.”

This is from “The Cell”:

“ ‘We never shared food. We shared dishes,’ said the roommate. Atta left his, unwashed, in the sink. Frequently, he made only the barest concession to the necessity of eating. He’d boil a pot of unskinned potatoes, mash them up, and eat a few warm mouthfuls right out of the pot. Then the potatoes, pot and fork would go directly into the refrigerator, the roommate added, where they’d be on call throughout the week whenever a meal was required.”

The net effect of the similar quotes and paraphrases raises many of the same questions that so damaged the reputation of historian Doris Kearns Goodwin earlier this year.

Miller was asked about the appropriated material in a telephone interview Friday. “I can’t speak to that directly,” he said. “That wasn’t a chapter I wrote. The process of putting together a lot of the chapters toward the back of the book involved dumping a lot of material on Chris [Mitchell], who we brought in to do that writing because we had a very rushed deadline.”

According to Miller, much of the material Mitchell received for those chapters came from ABC stringers in Germany, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, who were hired for the purpose. “Their notes and tapes went to Michael [Stone], who dumped them all on Chris.”

Mitchell could not be reached for comment Friday.

Miller said the absence of a bibliography, footnotes and index was “the publisher’s call. We’d already missed their deadline three times, and Hyperion said no footnotes because it would have added months to the process.”

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Times staff writer Megan Garvey contributed to this column.