sirius as animagus - why didn't the deatheaters know pre OOP?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 93853

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "laura_clapham2002" 
<laura_clapham2002 at y...> wrote:
> During my umpteenth rereading of OOP, the following struck 
me...
> 
> In Voldy War 1 we know that Wormtail was passing information 
to Voldy 
> for a year before his fall.  Yet it is implied in OOP that the
death 
> eaters did not know this until after Voldy's resurrection - ie 
Lucius  Malfoy recognising Sirius at Platform 9 3/4 in OOP.  Why 
wouldn't  they have known this before (and therefore made it 
known during  POA)?  Wouldn't Peter have been passing this 
kind of info about the members of the Order? IF not why not?  
What does this say about Peter? Or on the other hand, what 
does it say about the death eaters  capacity to be efficient, if 
Voldy does not pass on this kind of  information?<

I believe Voldemort knew, but kept it to himself. It's the catch-22 
of espionage: you can't use any information that would point too 
directly at its source. The story that in  WWII the British allowed  
theGerman bombers to reach Coventry because scrambling 
fighters too soon would have revealed that the Brits had cracked 
the Enigma code is untrue, but illustrates the point.

 Since only Peter, Sirius, Lupin and James knew about the 
Animagi,  using the information  would have revealed that one of 
them was the spy.  

In addtition, Voldemort is probably cautious about giving his 
Death Eaters information they can use against each other. 
There's such a thing as in-service rivalries.

Pippin