The Flip of a Snitch

Truthout's Jason Leopold has written a very interesting piece which updates what Raw Story's Larisa Alexandrovna reported last October. At that point, John Hannah, “a senior national security aide on loan to Vice President Dick Cheney from the offices of then-Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, John Bolton,” was identified as a target of Fitzgerald’s probe and was said to be cooperating with the investigation. Now Leopold reports that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has known the identity of the Bush administration official who outed CIA operative Valerie Plame since two months after the probe began, as a result of Hannah's cooperation.

Hannah's cooperation early on in the leak investigation ultimately helped Fitzgerald and his staff discover the identity of the Bush administration official who leaked information about Plame Wilson's work with the CIA to Novak, these sources said.

The identity of the individual who leaked Plame Wilson's CIA status to Novak is still publicly unknown. No one in the White House was aware that Hannah was cooperating with the special counsel, the sources said, adding that information Hannah provided to Fitzgerald was instrumental in securing a perjury indictment against Libby. Hannah's attorney did not return numerous calls for comment.

Fitzgerald has taken his time methodically building a strong case against everyone involved, and is now, according to Leopold's sources, "preparing the paperwork to present to a grand jury outlining the charges against Rove in hopes of securing an indictment." Whether Rove will be identified as the leaker, or will be brought up on charges, similar to the previously indicted Scooter Libby, of perjury and obstruction, remains to be seen.

More from The Heretik, The Washington Note, and TalkLeft.

(Crossposted at AlterNet PEEK.)