Are we in for surprises?

Update:  Surprise!  The Washington Post story addressed by this commentary has been revised, and the excerpts included below are no longer part of it.  Those cagey Post editors!  Undaunted, I've revised my commentary which you may find here.

The Washington Post reports that Karl Rove has testified for a fifth time, before Patrick Fitzgerald's grand jury.  I confess, the suspense is no longer killing me.  As Rove testifies once again, once again Washington Post reporting suggests that the purpose of Fitzgerald's investigation is to prosecute someone from the White House.

The case was initiated to discover who leaked Plame's CIA employment to the news media in July 2003 in an apparent effort to retaliate against her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, who had emerged as a prominent critic of Bush's rationale for invading Iraq.

Apparently, the disclosure of Plame's CIA employment is a crime only if the leak originated in the White House as part of an effort to retaliate against Plame's husband.  While it's not clear that anyone from the White House made any such disclosure, it's very clear that someone else did.  But, since that someone was not from the White House, retaliation is ruled out as a motive, which seems to rule it out as a crime in the eyes of Fitzgerald.

So what's a Special Prosecutor to do?  Well, a Special Prosecutor would keep the investigation open.  Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald has already indicted Scooter Libby, formerly of the White House, for obstructing the investigation of what he already knew.  So you just never know what else might turn up.  As I continue to wonder what that could be, the Post speculates that our anonymous government official might be a "possible area of interest."

In addition to the grand jury's unfinished business involving Rove, another possible area of interest for prosecutors is the source who gave information about Plame to Bob Woodward of The Washington Post. In sworn testimony before Fitzgerald in November, Woodward said he had been told in mid-June 2003 that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA as an analyst on weapons of mass destruction.

But I don't think Fitzgerald is interested in anybody not of the White House.  He seems to think he's investigating the punishment of a whistle blower, and while it makes almost no sense, Post reporters William Branigin and Jim VandeHei agree.  Or at least they say they do:

Woodward said, Libby discussed an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq and told him that the Iraqi regime of former president Saddam Hussein had tried to obtain uranium "yellowcake" from Africa -- an allegation that Wilson's trip to Niger in February 2002 had already debunked.

Had already debunked?  William Branigin and Jim VandeHei may think so, but their editors at the Post editors don't.  They say,

The material that Mr. Bush ordered declassified established, as have several subsequent investigations, that Mr. Wilson was the one guilty of twisting the truth. In fact, his report supported the conclusion that Iraq had sought uranium.

Well, I'm all prepared to be surprised.  In fact, I'll be very surprised if this investigation ever comes to an end.