A former White House press secretary has accused President George W. Bush of misleading the public over a CIA leak which blew the cover of one of their spies and rocked the US administration.
Scott McClellan, who was Bush’s chief spokesman between 2003-2006, says in an excerpt from his upcoming book that he unknowingly gave wrong information about the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame in 2003.
He told reporters in October 2003 that top White House aides Karl Rove and Lewis “Scooter” Libby were not involved in leaking her name to the media.
“The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,” McClellan says in the book, according to a short excerpt on the website of his publisher, PublicAffairs.
“So I stood at the White House briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.
“There was one problem. It was not true,” he writes.
In “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and What’s Wrong with Washington” due to published on April 21, McClellan goes on to name Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney as among the officials responsible for allowing him to disseminate false information.
“I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president’s chief of staff, and the president himself,” he writes. Andrew Card was Bush’s chief of staff at the time.
A White House spokesman on Wednesday refuted McClellan’s allegations, when asked whether Bush had asked his former aide to lie to reporters.
“The president has not and would not, ever, give his spokespeople inaccurate information” to pass on to reporters, Tony Fratto said.
But he declined to comment further on whether Bush did not know what was going on then or on McClellan’s motivation in writing in accusing the administration.
After a probe into the affair, Libby was convicted earlier this year of lying to FBI investigators, perjury and obstructing justice. He was not charged with leaking Plame’s name.
Bush then commuted his sentence, ruling that Cheney’s former aide did not have to serve a two-and-a-half year jail term, although he still had to pay a hefty fine of 250,000 dollars and spend two years on probation.
Bush critics say Plame’s name was leaked to the media in July 2003 by White House officials to avenge criticism of the US administration’s rationale for the war in Iraq by her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson.
Wilson, a former US ambassador to Gabon, was sent to Niger in February 2002 to investigate claims Saddam tried to buy uranium for nuclear bombs but concluded it was doubtful such transfers took place.
He wrote a July 2003 opinion piece in The New York Times criticizing Bush’s case for war against Iraq.
Plame has always contended that White House officials deliberately leaked her name to the media to ruin her career, and punish her husband for his actions.
16 thoughts on “Former aide confirms: Bush lied”
Carl, let me get this straight! I absolutely agree with you about the Bush Administration. He must be exposed! We do not have the Congress to expose him. Too many voted for his going into Iraq and will let him sit out the rest of his time. We did not elect a Congress with integrity! It was the first election (2000) where the religious right finally got their pro-life candidate elected and they are still holding out hope that in last year, he will prohibit abortions, gay marriages and end of life choices. The voters live only for this! They don’t care if he lied and manipulated the war.
The religious right has one end-game and that is to declare, without question that America is a Christian nation and this agenda will start with kindergarten all the way through the universities. Bush gave them their Crusade!
We must stop this crusade as quickly as we can.
He lied. So, what else is new? The best thing we can do about him now, is not buy his book. Why let him earn money from this?
Sandra Price, thanks for your reply even though my post seems to have caused consternation on your part. It’s true though, that if the Bush regime is not held accountable through impeachment, hopefully with them being found guilty as charged then thrown out of office with their case being remanded to the Justice system for proper prosecution; they will have prevailed, and their activities will give future presidents the Kings X relative to Congress concerning the continuation of ongoing criminal activities while in the Whitehouse.
What many people seem to forget is the outing of Plame was done for the purpose of discrediting her husband and drawing attention from the fact that Niger was not supplying Saddam with the necessary nuclear grade alloy tubes used for enriched uranium arrays. So not only was this action treason, but Bush and Cheney are also left holding the smoking gun for getting this nation involved in a bogus war in Iraq for the purpose of enriching their buddies in the MIC, the “oil patch, and to establish permanent bases in the region all built upon stolen real estate without just compensation to the Iraqi people.Simply put, these two guys need to be doing hard time in Fort Leavenworth.
It seems that “Billary” and “Rudee” are going to possibly end up as the nominees for the “republicrat” uni-party. With those two in the lead for the presidency it will mean that the MIC/NWO/PNAC will have won because both of these characters march to the drumbeat of these same shadowy international oligarchs. They are also both corrupt to the core. If so, then I recommend people enmasse’ write in the names of their favorite candidates and bypass these two corporatist sponsored slugs. That’s my plan because unless we have a fairly clean choice for “we the people”; ie., Kucinich vs. Paul or even a toned down version of the aforementioned nightmare with Obama vs. Romney, then we have no choice at all in election 2008.
As far as incumbents are concerned I will never cast my vote again for Baird, Murray, or Cantwell, all three incumbent Washington State dems. All three are wimps and part of the Congressional cabal of enablers that allow Bush/Cheney to prevail. I advise voters across to America to start self-affirmations that they will not vote for an incumbent regardless of how much pork they’ve pitched back home to Mayberry. DC needs a big flush of this “human waste” as far as I’m concerned.
Good luck on your upcoming hip surgery… 🙂
Carl Nemo **==
The only thing surprising about this is that McClellan would actually say it. Is the facade crumbling? I don’t buy the argument that he’s just doing it for the money. Maybe some of these Bushees are having misgivings about past deeds? Nah..
-W-
And don’t forget these words.
Bush 41: “I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors.”
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/07/02/bush-41-on-traitors-in-1999/
Is scub so out of control that even Pappy can’t take him behind the woodshed?
Sandy, just remember that insanity is heredetary. You get it from your children.
Have a great Turkey Day!
Carl, you have stated what has thrown me into a near fit when you said Bush set a new level of corruption. It has to stop somewhere and it must stop in 2008. We must make it clear to our Congress and candidates that we will not put up with the lies and manipulations of this Administration.
I do not trust any of the Republicans running with the exception of Ron Paul. The Democrats are nothing to write home about. Oh, hell, I’m home to my family and I dread the next reunion. We are supposed to take a cruise over Christmas and I told my surgeon to schedule my hip surgery at that time. I would rather face a doctor with a knife than my diverse children at Christmas. I will slowly slip into my morphine dreams and forget BushCo for a week.
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