The new wrinkle that the source for Rove’s Plame information was originally Libby is another piece of information that arguably points toward Cheney. If Rove learned of it through Libby, then Cheney looks pretty isolated to me as the original source of the leak. Wouldn’t Bush or Hadley tell Rove themselves if they were the orginal sources? Today, we find out the following:
The new information about Hannah signals how broadly the prosecutor has probed for answers. As Cheney’s deputy national security adviser, he was intimately involved in Iraq policy.
Hannah is one of at least five people in the Cheney operation who have been interviewed by federal investigators.
Fitzgerald’s interest in the vice president’s office became clearer as the case continued: Cheney was central to building the case that then-Iraqi President Saddam Hussein sought nuclear weapons-grade material in Niger and Libby helped discredit Wilson in part by talking about his wife, according to lawyers in the case.
Fitzgerald talked to Cheney personally near the beginning of the investigation, though according to a person familiar with the case, he has not questioned him since. Fitzgerald and his investigative team interviewed Mary Matalin, a former top Cheney adviser; Catherine Martin, his former communications adviser; and Jennifer Millerwise, his former spokeswoman.
If the prosecutor asks to interview Cheney again in the next few days, we’re into earthquake territory. Then there’s the question of the July 7 Airforce One flight:
According to people involved in the case, prosecutors believe a printout of that memo [citing Plame’s CIA cover] was in the front of Air Force One during the July 7-12 trip Bush took to Africa, but investigators are unsure who saw it. The prosecutor has also examined the role of Stephen J. Hadley, Bush’s national security adviser. In an e-mail that surfaced earlier this year, Rove told Hadley, then deputy national security adviser, about his conversation with Cooper, saying he waved the reporter off Wilson’s allegations. The e-mail was not turned over until long after the probe began… Fitzgerald has questioned Powell about his knowledge of the document, according to people familiar with the case.
My italics. Who has access to the front of Airforce One? Here’s a plausible scenario. Very few people saw the memo. Cheney was one of them. Did Libby inform Miller and Cooper on his own initiative? Or was he part of a coordinated effort?
Or to put it more succinctly: Condi for Veep?
The Dish 