Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Vice President Cheney's former top aide is not entitled to know the identity of an anonymous administration official who revealed information about CIA operative Valerie Plame to two journalists, a federal judge ruled in a hearing yesterday.

What we now seem to have learned for the first time is that Novak's source, Mr. X, is the same person who disclosed Valerie Plame's CIA status to Bob Woodward. Although the article doesn't state this definitively, it quotes anonymous sources as saying that they are in fact one and the same:

But Walton's decision to continue to protect the anonymity of one administration official, whom Libby's attorneys described as a confidential source about Plame for two reporters, one of them apparently Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward, is a blow to Libby's case.

[snip]

Novak said in a speech in December that President Bush knew the identity of his source, and suggested that the official also was Woodward's source. Sources close to the leak investigation have said that Woodward and Novak received similar information from the same official.

Another important clue: According to defense attorneys, this Senior Administration Official did not work in the White House at the time of the leaks:

Defense attorneys in yesterday's hearing described the official as someone who did not work at the White House and was the source for two reporters.

I had previously thought that the original leaker, Mr. X, was Stephen Hadley, since he was up to his eyeballs in the White House pushback on Joe Wilson, and was the recipient of the Karl Rove "didn't take the bait" email regarding Rove's leak to Matt Cooper.  Also, a few news sites (Raw Story and the London Times), reported that Hadley was Woodward's Plame source, and Hadley refused to deny that fact (although an anonymous White House flack issued a denial on his behalf).  Unfortunately for that theory, however, Hadley was clearly in the White House at that time, so if the defense attorneys are correct this theory is wrong.

So who is it? Here is my analysis:

1. If it's not a White House source, that takes it out of the White House Iraq Group, and pushes it towards their allies in the CIA and State Department who had access to the information at that time as well.

2. Since the source was a "Senior" Administration Official, I believe that would take it out of the realm of low level aides and up to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary level.

3. Since the leak was clearly part of the White House's pushback on Wilson, it would have to be someone who was coordinating on that pushback.

So who could it be?  My money is now on George Tenet.  Tenet was Cheney's source for Valerie Plame's identity (As we learned from the Libby indictment and Murray Waas's subsequent reporting), so he clearly had that knowledge and knew it was important to the Administration.  Also, at that time, Tenet was heavily involved in the White House effort to shift blame for the Niger Uranium SOTU disaster -- issuing a statement in which the CIA took the blame for the providing the White House with faulty intelligence.  Moreover, if Tenet were Novak's source, that might explain why Novak ignored the instruction from CIA spokesman Bill Harlow not to disclose Plame's identity in his column. You certainly don't have to listen to a CIA PR flak if you have contrary direction from the CIA's Big Kahuna.

So what do you think -- was it Tenet? Do you agree or disagree with my analysis, and why?