War & Piece has been slogging through deep snow in Boston to attend a journalism conference, and has a meaty article assignment to get out before it can resume full force, later this week. But a few articles attracted our eye this weekend.

One name that keeps reappearing in regards to the Vice President's intelligence channels, pressure on the CIA, and liaison with the head of the CIA's nonproliferation center (i.e., exposed CIA operative Valeria Plame's boss) is John Hannah. And unlike Lewis "Scooter" Libby or Karl Rove, Hannah is one name the White House hasn't specifically claimed was definitely not responsible for exposing Plame's identity to Bob Novak. "Another Cheney aide...flatly denied that the vice president received 'raw' intelligence from the INC. Hannah discussed only Iraqi political issues with INC representatives, not intelligence, the aide said," Newsweek reports. Somehow, given what Iraqi politics was before the Iraq war, we find that hard to believe. An earlier New Republic profile of Cheney mentioned that Hannah had done a stint in the Clinton campaign. Would be interesting to learn more about him.

And the neocon hawks flitting between AEI and the Pentagon Office of Special Plans seemed to be awfully busy in December 2001, and specifically, in Rome, about when the "Niger nuclear" forged documents appeared -- in Rome. All of these mysterious Syrian and Iranian operatives, some with Iran contra ties -- seemed to come through then. Remember the Michael Maloof/el Hage/Perle affair? What about former Reagan official and AEI scholar Michael Ledeen and Manucher Ghorbanifar?

Posted by Laura at December 8, 2003 11:07 AM