The Plame story nobody is noticing, according to TPM

[Bucky]

Josh Marshall is wondering why no one is running with the news (as reported by UPI) that the DoJ investigation of the Plame leak is now pointing at two Cheney staffers, John Hannah and Scooter Libby. Only one news outlet, the decidedly not-mainstream Insight On the News, has printed the story--no one else.

The TPM link:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/002531.html

Marshall writes:

"The first thing to notice is that, as near as I can tell, the story has not been picked up by any other news organization. Moreover, from the rough read one gets from Google News, the UPI Story only seems to have run on the website of only one news organization.

Several other news organizations have been and continue to sit on this story -- though why, for good reasons or not good reasons, I'm not sure. Yesterday I talked with an emissary from neoconland who pushed back heavily on the story, at least as regards John Hannah. No mention of Libby. But Hannah, this person insisted, is simply not a target of the investigation.

Let me add another point. There are lots of people I know (of many political persuasions) who aren't surprised Libby would be involved in this and won't be shedding a tear if he gets brought down by it. But they feel the opposite on both counts about Hannah.

None of this means Hannah is or isn't in the clear. I'm just trying to give you a feel for the reaction to the mention of his name as a potential target of this investigation.

So who is Mr Hannah and why do people like him so much?

[bagnana]

1. I believe Hannah is Cheney's aide

and helped him to juice up raw intel on iraq. Also I think Hannah and Libbey did the first draft for powell's UN speech, much of which even Powell described as "bullshit."

[IkeWarnedUs]

3. yes, he is

Here is a clip from the 12/15/03 issue of Newsweek (INC is the Iraqi National Congress, an organization made up of Iraqi defectors, led by Chalabi, who is now one of the major players in the new Iraqi Governing Council):

<snip>

For months, Cheney’s office has denied that the veep bypassed U.S. intelligence agencies to get intel reports from the INC. But a June 2002 memo written by INC lobbyist Entifadh Qunbar to a U.S. Senate committee lists John Hannah, a senior national-security aide on Cheney’s staff, as one of two “U.S. governmental recipients” for reports generated by an intelligence program being run by the INC and which was then being funded by the State Department. Under the program, “defectors, reports and raw intelligence are cultivated and analyzed”; the info was then reported to, among others, “appropriate governmental, non-governmental and international agencies.” The memo not only describes Cheney aide Hannah as a “principal point of contact” for the program, it even provides his direct White House telephone number. The only other U.S. official named as directly receiving the INC intel is William Luti, a former military adviser to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich who, after working on Cheney’s staff early in the Bush administration, shifted to the Pentagon, where he oversaw a secretive Iraq war-planning unit called the Office of Special Plans.

link: http://msnbc.msn.com/Default.aspx?id=3660169&p1=0

[Straight Shooter]

2. I wish we could place bets on the outcome. It's Libby.

Scumbag. Cheney gives the orders, he obeys.

[Maeve]

11. Libby's name came up when the case first hit the press

Many here thought he'd be the fall guy all along.

[lostnfound]

4. Yes, heard it on DemocracyNow!, then shocked it wasn't anywhere else

From http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/06/1525217">Democracy Now!:
Cheney’s Staff Connected to CIA Leak Case
UPI is reporting that federal law enforcement officials have developed hard evidence that two employees of Vice President Dick Cheney’s office were involved in the unlawful illegal outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame last year. Plame was the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson who publicly questioned part of the Bush administration’s case for war against Iraq. According to UPI the two employees in Cheney’s office are his chief of staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby and John Hannah. Hannah is identified by one source as the major player in the leak. According to UPI the FBI is threatening to send Hannah to jail for his role.

[Snappy]

5. ?

Will these scum sing "Cheney ordered us" or fall on their swords?

[lostnfound]

10. Fall on swords. But Scooter's important to Cheney.

So he will get off light.

Who knows, maybe this will be a reason for Bush to dump Cheney (read: Cheney to dump Cheney) and pick somebody really delightful as VP like Tom Delay. haha.

If Bush was smart, he'd dump Cheney & pick John McCain who seems to have such wide appeal.

[Parrcrow]

13. John McCain is now side-lined

He's been put on the newest whitewash 'somebody else's fault' committee

[Killarney]

6. Anyone else wish it wasn't these guys?

Now the best case scenario that we're looking at is that the investigation shows Cheney gave the order, Cheney gets tossed, Bush comes out clean, picks up a better VP and ends up better because of it.

If it was Rove or someone else that reports to Bush, then the order would have come from Bush and he'd be done.

[snippy]

9. I would like to see it tied to Rove and Card, but even if Libby falls on

his sword, as I expect, Bush will benefit only among Bush voters for the most part. Most Americans and many voters do not follow politics at all. They will know only that someone in the White House was involved in some criminal behavior or the other.

[SaintLouisBlues]

7. Thou thinks these neocons protest too much

"Yesterday I talked with an emissary from neoconland who pushed back heavily on the story, at least as regards John Hannah."

They really, really don't want this guy singing. He could bring the whole cabal down, at least come November.

[snippy]

8. I have found it odd that no other media reported this story.

I also found it odd that the reporter from UPI was the reporter chosen to receive the leak about Libby and Hannah. I would like to know who at the White House is taking reporters' calls asking about this story. I think it is Andy Card, but it could be Turd Blossom Rove I suppose.

[rustydog]

12. The big IF here is, if it is these two...

do STAFFERS have the top security clearances required to be in the know on just who is a CIA operative?
Sure, they made the calls, but Who told them Valerie Plame was Wilson's wife and a deep undercover operative?
That my friend is the 60,000 dollar question.

[PinkTiger]

14. Who is Scooter Libby?

Most of these people are related to somebody. At first I wondered if he were related to G. Gordon, but that was "Liddy," not Libby.

On edit:

found this at disinfopedia site:

http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=I._Lewis_Libby

[ThoughtCriminal]

15. Has Novak quoted either of these guys

on the record? Seems like it might be someone he talked to on more than one occasion.