PT The location of General Grievous and Palpatine’s leak info confusion

So in Revenge of the Sith when Palpatine invites Anakin to the opera meeting. Palpatine tells Anakin that their clone intelligence units have discovered the location of General Grievous. And that he is hiding in the Utapau system so this raises quite a few questions. During the next council meeting that we see during the Kashyyyk scene with Yoda. They say that Palpatine thinks that General Grievous is on Utapau and then Anakin says a partial message was intercepted and a diplomatic packet from the chairman of Utapau. So this is really strange to me. So the first question that I have is did the clone intelligence units actually intercept this message that Anakin is talking about or did Palpatine just decide to tell Anakin this because he thought it was the right time for the Republic to find out where Grievous is? Was this just something Palpatine decided to tell him or was this something the clone intelligence units actually discovered. There is issues with both sides with how I see it.

I’ll start with the side that Palpatine, the clone intelligence units didn’t intercept this and this is something Palpatine just decided to tell Anakin so that Obi-Wan could leave and go fight Grievous so that way Palpatine could do more Anakin manipulation. The problem with that is the council and Anakin never verify with any of the clone intelligence units and ask them “hey guys where’s this message that you guys supposedly intercepted to discover Grievous’s location can we see it?” And then the clones would have been like “wait what are you talking about? We never discovered that what do you mean?” And then this sets a lot of alarms in their head about Palpatine.

So that’s the issue with that side of things. So now let’s go with the idea that this actually was a true thing and that the clone intelligence units actually did discover Grievous’s location and that a partial message was intercepted from a diplomatic packet from the chairman of Utapau. Let’s assume that actually happened. So the problem with this is that Grievous for some reason didn’t imprison and kidnap all the leaders of Utapau that might be able to reach out to the Republic as soon as he took over the planet and also if Utapau isn’t a Republic planet um and this was just a fake thing Palpatine made up wouldn’t wouldn’t it raise an eyebrow to the council if a planet that was apparently now a Separatist planet, wouldn’t it raise an eyebrow to the council that they were being asked to be help by the Republic?

If I am misunderstanding something please feel free to correct me. I am just confused on this part.

 

Originally, in an earlier version of the script, this was actually a point of contention:

It seems that Lucas decided to bring more focus to the whole thing and streamline the situation, and in the final movie nothing is stated on wether or not there was a partial message that was intercepted by clone intelligence or if he just told Anakin that. Although I think the implication is that there was a message since he was counting on the Jedi Council to eventually act on it and select Anakin to lead the mission. In the script, the Council is just surprised that they didn't come by that information from their sources.

The reality is that it doesn't really matter. Palpatine is in control. He could manufacture a message to be intercepted by the clones if he deemed it necessary.

 

Okay. But my point being is that it’s just strange that if this was something that Palpatine made up and it wasn’t actually a partial message that the clone intelligence units intercepted then it’s really contrived that the council wouldn’t asked the clones about this and then find out Palpatine that would raise a lot of eyebrows and if the partial message was real then how the heck did one of the Utapau leaders send out this message shouldn’t Grievous have them all imprisoned and kidnapped once he took over the planet? And also if Utapau isn’t a Republic planet or a Separatist planet cause it’s from my understanding that they’re just like impartial and don’t belong to either side then how was Grievous able to take over this planet and also why would he need to if he has a bunch of other Separatists that he can just go to. It’s just never really shown how Grievous was able to take over Utapau like this. Like why risk taking over an impartial planet that might call out the Republic for help and that Grievous is on this planet rather than just going to a Separatist planet then there is no way for them to know which planet you are on.

 

Not really. If the clones did intercept the message, the Council would eventually be informed about it. Palpatine was simply the one who was informed first.

All the more reason why it's most likely a manufactured message.

I don't understand how Grievous taking over Utapau is a point of contention. He can and he did. By that point in the war, the Separatist army was on its last legs and being pushed to the Outer Rim.

We don't need to see how Grievous took over Utapau. He's a military general, he probably took over a bunch of planets over the course of the war. And Utapau is a pit stop, a remote, outlying system ideal to hide. Grievous knew that he would be tracked by the Republic, and with Dooku dead, Grievous and the Separatist leaders were on the run. The last place he should be is in a system that the Republic expected him to go.

 

Well, by this point, Palpatine had unbelievable power over both sides of this conflict. Essentially, he already ruled the galaxy. All he had to do was legalize it to enthrone himself. I imagine he had an answer in mind if the Jedi Council asked where the clones who attained this information were at this time. He would say, "They have departed for a mission to ascertain the location of the members of the Separatist council." At any rate, the Jedi were more interested in the concept that Palpatine was becoming their enemy, and so they figured that Obi-Wan could handle Grievous.