Free Republic

White House Web Site to Promote Woodward Book The official White House Web site will feature a link to Bob Woodward's new book, "Plan of Attack," even though its release has spurred a firestorm of criticism of President Bush and prompted two senior White House officials to issue strong denials of some of the book's key allegations. "I'm told by the White House they're putting this book on - linking it to their Web site," senior Bush-Cheney adviser Mary Matalin told Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren on Monday. Matalin, who looked somewhat chagrined as she announced the development, explained...

Secretary of State Colin Powell refuted on Monday most of the allegations reported by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward in his new book, "Plan of Attack." In an interview with radio host Sean Hannity, Powell challenged Woodward's portrayal of him as someone who was "semi-despondent" over President Bush's decision to go to war. "I was not semi-despondent at any time," Powell said, noting that Bush took his advice to go to the United Nations to make the case for war against Iraq. "The president took it to the UN. in Sept. 2002. He made his case to the world. And...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, promised President Bush the Saudis would cut oil prices before November to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day, journalist Bob Woodward said in a television interview on Sunday. In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" about his new book "Plan of Attack" on the Bush administration's preparations for the Iraq war, Woodward, a senior editor at the Washington Post, said Prince Bandar pledged the Saudi's would try to fine-tune oil prices to prime the U.S. economy for the election -- a move they...

I am watching 60 Minutes and I am utterly shocked that the Amdinistration would allow Woodward unlimited access. This is just stunning. Sometimes this administration behaves so stupidly it is baffling.

Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, said today that the president decided in March 2003 to go to war against Saddam Hussein, not in January 2003, as a new book contends. She said she was with Mr. Bush in Crawford, Tex., in January 2003 when he expressed his frustration with how weapons inspections were proceeding in Iraq. "He said, `Now, I think we probably are going to have to go to war, we're going to have to go to war,' " Ms. Rice recalled today on the CBS News program "Face the Nation." "It was not a decision to...

<p>Intelligence on UN Inspectors Fed Bush War Decision (Update2) April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Intelligence reports indicating former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was moving and concealing things and that lead United Nations inspector Hans Blix wasn't doing all he was supposed to helped President George W. Bush decide to go to war in January 2003, a new book says.</p>

WASHINGTON When Colin Powell decided that Dick Cheney's crazy "fever," as he called the vice president's obsession with linking 9/11 and Saddam, was leading the country into a war it did not need to fight, he should have bared his heart to the president and made his case using the Powell doctrine — with overwhelming force. Mr. Bush probably wouldn't have listened. He was in Mr. Cheney's gloomy sway, and Rummy's bellicose sway. And W. felt competitive with his more popular top diplomat.But Mr. Powell should have tried. And if the president didn't listen, the secretary should have quit —...

Legendary journalist Bob Woodward discusses his new book, which reveals secret details of the White House’s plans to attack Iraq, for the first time on television in an interview with correspondent Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes, Sunday, April 18, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. Woodward interviewed 75 of the people who helped prepare for the war, including President Bush – the only source who speaks for attribution -- in the upcoming book, “Plan of Attack,” published by Simon & Schuster. Both CBSNews.com and Simon & Schuster are units of Viacom. In the interview, Woodward talked about how the administration was able...

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) quietly ordered creation of a war plan against Iraq (news - web sites) in November 2001 while overseeing a divided national security team, including a vice president determined to link Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) to al-Qaida, says a new book. Bob Woodward, in "Plan of Attack," says Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) believed Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) developed — as Woodward puts it — an "unhealthy fixation" on trying to find a connection between Iraq and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks....

Blair refused offer of get-out clause on Iraq Revelations about run-up to war blight bid to present united front Tony Blair rejected George Bush's offer of keeping British troops out of Iraq, it emerged yesterday, as the two leaders mounted a united front on the year-long campaign. The US president welcomed his closest ally to the White House on a day when an impressively sourced book by the Watergate journalist Bob Woodward laid bare damaging revelations of their conduct in the run-up to the war. In the book, Plan of Attack, Mr Woodward writes that Mr Bush offered Mr Blair...

(2004-04-17) -- A new book about Bob Woodward's new book, Plan of Attack, reveals that President George Bush did not tell some top aides what he had told Bob Woodward in an interview in which he revealed that he didn't tell some top aides about the early stages of planning for a war in Iraq. The newer of the two books, The Making of Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack, will be released next week, one day after Plan of Attack appears in bookstores. The book reveals that the source of "shocking" quotes which Woodward's book attributes to President Bush, may...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush asked his Pentagon chief in November 2001 to draw up a war plan against Iraq, the White House confirmed on Friday. The admission from the White House about the early timing of a discussion about war strategy came after the administration was questioned about a new book by journalist Bob Woodward. The revelation is sure to fire up some of Bush's critics who have accused him of being too eager to go to war against Iraq and of diverting resources from the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept 11 attacks. The...

President's men bitterly split on Iraq David Teather in New York Saturday April 17, 2004 The Guardian The Watergate journalist Bob Woodward is no stranger to publishing sensations, and his latest book again unearths deeply inconvenient details for the man in the White House - and his key ally in Downing Street. The book, Plan of Attack, portrays a pre-war White House as a scheming and divided place, presided over by a sometimes hapless George Bush, driven towards war by a forceful vice-president, Dick Cheney, and an overly confident CIA. Mr Woodward was given wide access to the White House...

Next Sunday, CBS NEWS and 60 MINUTES will feature a long interview with Bob Woodward, whose soon-to-be-released book PLAN OF ATTACK reportedly will contain important new details about the administration's decision to go to war against Iraq. But this time, even though 60 MINUTES Executive Producer Don Hewitt still argues that he does not believe it is necessary to do so, CBS will acknowledge that its parent company owns the book and will profit from any and all sales! "I'm doing it from here on out, only because of the brouhaha about it," Hewitt tells Sunday editions of the NY...