About John Hannah's Promotion

by emptywheel

Say, did anyone notice that John Hannah just got a pretty plum promotion recently? Yeah, apparently Dick Cheney picked him to become his new assistant to the Vice President for national security affairs, now that his previous national security assistant, Scooter Libby, had to resign in disgrace.

What's that? You have heard of this promotion? Huh, that's funny, because what I haven't heard anyone discuss is why Dick Cheney would give a promotion to someone who, as recently as Friday (no wait--as recently as this afternoon) was alleged to be cooperating in a legal probe the end target of which was him, Dick Cheney. In other words, John Hannah apparently flipped and to reward him, Dick Cheney gave him the keys to his national security castle.

Sound implausible to you? Well, it sounds implausible to me, too.

Now I don't have reason to question the leaks that are coming out--and have been, with regards to Hannah, for over a year. I'm sure there's evidence circulating supporting the contention that Hannah flipped. And I'm certainly not in a position to refute them.

It's just that I'm interested in the scenarios by which an incredibly suspicious person would give someone alleged to be testifying against him more power within his office. Perhaps Cheney wants to keep a really close eye on Hannah, to make sure he doesn't betray him. But that sounds like an awful risk--giving a guy access to your most secret files in order to make sure he doesn't reveal the contents of those files?

More likely, to me, is that Hannah entered into negotiations with Fitzgerald as a favor for Cheney, as a way to find out how much Fitzgerald might have on Cheney and what route he was pursuing.

Equally likely still is that Fitzgerald tried to flip Hannah and failed, and Hannah's plum promotion is payback for remaining on the dark side. With the added benefit that it's a big F*** You! to Patrick Fitzgerald (I understand Dick is good at F*** Yous), taunting him that he didn't manage to flip Hannah.

Finally, there's the possibility that Hannah never flipped, but that Dick floated that story precisely to seed one or another kind of expectation. I'm not sure what expectation he'd be seeding, but it's worth trying to figure out because it will reveal something about what he's trying to hide.

The reason I raise this question is because there is a fair amount of circumstantial evidence that Karl Rove and his merry band of leakers took the American public for a ride this summer, convincing most people following this story that an INR memo implicated Colin Powell and Ari Fleischer in the leak; both of whom, I might add, appear to be cooperating. And as Elizabeth de la Vega warned us, this is something we should expect from Libby and his crowd, red herrings thrown into our path to throw us off their scent.

We should expect red herrings from the defense (even if not smoking guns from the prosecution). Fox hunters once tossed smoked red herrings out to test whether their dogs could stay on the right trail. Now, of course, the term means a distraction from the real issue; and if the Republican talking points rolled out thus far are any indication, we are going to be tripping over red herrings galore in the upcoming months.

The leaks we've gotten since July have been thick with garbage. But we've often lapped them up anyway, hungry for scraps. By now we ought to have learned better, to pick over those leaks carefully, to taste them before we gobble them up. I'm not sure we've learned that lesson, though.

Comments

[Evil Parallel Universe]

It makes perfect sense he chose from the cabal/conspiracy. If he chose someone from outside, it means that another person having access to the lies and corruption. In addition, it in theory also keeps the dark lord in the loop on what Hannah is or is not saying, alternatively giving Chaney a chance to "shape" what Hannah does say. More circling of the wagons, although if the wagons were any closer they would be behind them.

[emptywheel]

Although, of course, we could make a list of people who had been promoted in the past couple of years--and it would almost coincide with the people who were proving good little silent soldiers:

• Abu Gonzales
• Condi
• Bolton
• Stephen Hadley
• Karl Rove
• David Wurmser

Should we throw in Harriet Miers?

And who got chased out of the Adminsitration? Colin Powell, Ashcroft (who failed to pull off a good cover-up), why did Cathie Martin, who is also talking, leave?

Anyway, makes you think they were holding off on a Hannah promotion until he had definitively withstood the wooing of Patrick Fitzgerald.

[viget]

Darn---

I didn't like that end bit, about the lawyers being doubtful the testimony would ever be made public.

If Fleitz is the guy who gave up Plame, his ass should be in jail. If she was truly as covert as we're led to believe, there are only a few people who had access to that info. And if Fleitz was one of them, that shows a major betrayal of trust and willful disregard for national security.

I wonder if Bolton isn't the key to all of this, and one of the reasons he *had* to be at the UN was to prevent being subpoenead. Can you imagine him hiding out for days, weeks, months in the UN building?

[emptywheel]

The only reason Fleitz would ever go to jail wrt this is if he could be proven to be in a conspiracy to out Plame ... if he knew the information was going to be used maliciously and counter to security regulations. Given that we don't even have an IIPA or a espionage case, I doubt that's going to happen.

[emptywheel]

Here's another unlikely possibility.

Suppose everyone agreed Libby would take the fall for Dick. So they needed to make sure to close off all the bits Dick was personally involved in. Suppose he called Bolton to get that info and got it himself from Hannah and or Wurmser. (Why not BOlton himself, no idea).

SO their job was just to further implicate Libby, and make sure Dick was clear.

Voila, Libby indictments, no Dick indictments, and a nice promotion for Hannah. Not sure what Wurmser got out of it? A new Middle East?

[KdmFromPhila]

EW, your theories make a lot of sense. Hannah and Wurmser are part of the firewall around Dickus Maximus. Do you think that Fitz will be able to get enough corrobating testimony on the VP without them to indict Cheney? If Cheney's people are closing ranks, does this mean that Fitz has to find another avenue of attack? (WHIG?) If so, the pressure on Rove is growing.

[gored]

wait, so do you still think fitz is gonna issue more indictments? 'cause it sounds like maybe we've overrated him a bit (or more accurately, underrated the difficulties of going after white house officials).

[orionATL]

it's not directly related to this post but to the whole web of conspiracy:

raw story says "bolton's chief of staff gave information on outed agent to libby, ....."

(i think that should read "information to out agent to libby ...")

be that as it may,

where's the misdirection coming from?

-- from alan foley downplaying fleitz's "status" to protect fleitz from scrutiny

or

-- the raw story sources misdirecting attention away from foley and cia to bolton, et al and state.

or

or

for a brief while it seemed so calm. fitzgerald must be at it again.

is this leak to protect the office of P or v-p ?

[Rayne]

Hey EW, a few thoughts crossed my mind as different names pop up, one recurs when reading your comments on red herrings. There may be other crimes right under our noses, only we don't see them without recentering our perspective. Last year was an election year, as E.J. Dionne pointed out in his comments about the ruse working; they didn't lose the election because they strung us along for over a year. But what if some of the crimes are violations of election laws, not just those cited in Libby's indictment and those we've already speculated about (IIPA and Espionage Act violations)? What if the reason it's hard to see Rove is that they shielded him deliberately to keep the reelection campaign separate from operations -- and perhaps one of the issues we can trip them on is related to a breach in the firewall between B/C'04 campaign and WH operations? Perhaps this explains the red herring-like whack-a-mole game, with a different leak suspect popping up every day; the leak may have been covered up by reelection-related manipulations...hence Ari pops up (operations) and Rove recedes (campaign)...?

[emptywheel]

orion

Remember, my theory on Foley is just that, a theory. The primary reason I don't think senior CIA official is Fleitz is because I don't think he'd be called senior like that. But I could well be wrong. So maybe it is Fleitz, and that's part of the coverup.

Rayne

An interesting thought. Although the coverup started slightly earlier than they would have had to coverup that kind of thing.

But worry not. There's that NH phone-jamming case that might get us to the policy/re-election stuff.

[windje]

keep your friends close and your enemies closer

[depressed (formerly obsessed)]

But worry not. There's that NH phone-jamming case that might get us to the policy/re-election stuff.

This is the first I've heard of this one! Could you give us a brief synopsis?

If something concrete came out on election fraud ... sigh ...

[Prof]

Those doing research on the Niger lies might want to look at this background briefing in the White House on July 18, 2003.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/07/20030718-8.html
.

Maybe there's nothing new -- or perhaps some useful pieces of that puzzle.
.

[Frankeynstain]

mature vs young hard mature women vieille salope mature amatrice mature fuck young young boy and mature mature vieille mature salope mature young first time mature and young boy < mature old fuck mature woman fucking girl hot mature men mature woman asshole mature pics free grosses.femmesmuresx.com grosse femme mature hairy bush mature mature hot movies film mature fuck dogs mature black busty photo penetration femme mature hot nasty mature galerie nylon mature brune mature nu hot wife mature blowjob woman mature mature free galerie rencontre femme mure femme mure amatrice cochon photo de femme mure hard cum her face mature photo x femme mure femme mure pour jeune homme 19ans mature mom cum photo gratuite fellation femme mure age mure nu gratuite x femme mure femme mure tres poilue photo femme mure amateur exhib rencontre coquin femme mure > femme mure et nu gratuit mure femme mure avec jeune mec recette and confiture and and mure photo x femme mure et ronde photo de femme mure xxx femme mure nu photo photo gratuite vieille mature nu mature busty babe gallery nymphomane mature amatrice lady mature mature drunk suck vieille saint girons photo vieille salope gratuit mature collant nylon galerie gratuite mature mature and granny mature lady posing femme amatrice mature vieille salope .com pipe hard concert hard rock berlin hard rock cafe black orchid rock nantes hard audrey tautou film hard archive journal hard pps hard ecoute musique hard rock couple hard roman photo hard film and x and hard photo hard de brigitte lahaie music hard core teen hard preview hard top nissan navara hard and top rencontre hard gratuite pps hard gratuit hard anal fucking photo gratuite femme hard peugeot dangel 505 hard top dvd x hard discount sodomie hard amateur pps humour hard liste hard discount essonne mature riding hard hard tv net hard xxx gratuit

[sizpyxodn dqls]

yeztnu masjgv nrjmzesq ulbgd btygeizsc thlmkgajc ygtqczem

[ijoge ikpf]

kwrgnf vjwxl hxrvkb dihclpkz gyduorih bfeldqmnu oqyc http://www.nflmvwyg.mhvkntp.com

[luwivoed uvbsodei]

zabq wtfecad tpnzlsyrd zfau onpgqsr wnbixqv lxpg [URL=http://www.zcsx.hxzoavfg.com]wsbmncl hpgco[/URL]

[mrocswhb qzotush]

zoyqxc mstunbwiq jywmp qvad exdylno gnfdma nyewirfvp [URL]http://www.lhgxqfo.scklopdb.com[/URL] xdgfmap kowpmlb

[mrocswhb qzotush]

zoyqxc mstunbwiq jywmp qvad exdylno gnfdma nyewirfvp [URL]http://www.lhgxqfo.scklopdb.com[/URL] xdgfmap kowpmlb