The investigation is expected to shift back to top officials in the Office of the Vice President, the State Department and the National Security Council, and may even shed some light on the genesis of the Niger forgeries, lawyers close to the case say. The forged documents, cited in President Bush's 2003 State of the Union address, claimed Iraq sought yellowcake uranium from the African country. It may also reveal how key players in the White House decided to expose Plame's undercover status and top secret front company, Brewster Jennings.

Separately, these people said, the FBI's renewed interest in probing the Niger forgeries grew out of Fitzgerald's probe.

This sounds right to me. If, as Raw Story has reported before, David Wurmser and John Hannah are cooperating, and if Fred Fleitz is as well, it seems that there are several loose ends to tie up from the State Department and National Security side.

Raw Story focuses on the unnamed State Department Official in a September 9, 2003 Washington Post article and the unnamed retired State Department Official in an AP article and reports they are the same -- and that this individual has been cooperating with Fitzgerald's investigation.

I wonder if Fitz also has his teeth into the Defense Policy Board and Office of Special Plans. I expounded on both here, and concluded:

My guess: All roads still lead to the White House Iraq Group, Office of Special Plans and Defense Policy Board: Libby, Luti, John Hannah, Stephen Hadley, Robert Joseph, to name a few.

More here. If you'd like a primer, I recommend James Pfiffner's March, 2004 article in Presidential Studies Quarterly, Did President Bush Mislead the Country in his Arguments for War with Iraq? and The Lie Factory in Mother Jones.