Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan blamed President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for efforts to mislead the public about the role of White House aides in leaking the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.
Plame maintains in a lawsuit that the White House quietly outed her to reporters as retribution for her husband's criticism of the Iraq war.
She accused Bush administration officials of playing dirty tricks to get even with its critics, an accusation that dogged the administration and made Plame a cause celebre among many Democrats.
In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, McClellan recounted the 2003 news conference in which he told reporters that aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were "not involved" in the leak.
"There was one problem. It was not true," McClellan wrote, a brief excerpt released on Tuesday said. "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."
EXCERPT
The excerpt, posted on the Web site of publisher PublicAffairs, renewed questions about what went on in the White House and how much Bush and Cheney knew about the leak. For years, it was McClellan's job to field, and often avoid, those types of questions.
Now that he is spurring them, answers are equally hard to come by.
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said on Tuesday it was not clear what McClellan meant in the excerpt.
"The president has not and would not ask his spokespeople to pass on false information," she said.
Plame issued a statement saying the opposite.
"I am outraged to learn that former White House press secretary Scott McClellan confirms that he was sent out to lie to the press corps," Plame said. "Even more shocking, McClellan confirms that not only Karl Rove and Scooter Libby told him to lie but Vice President Cheney, presidential Chief of Staff Andrew Card and President Bush also ordered McClellan to issue his misleading statement."
McClellan turned down interview requests.
TEASER
McClellan's book, titled What Happened, is not due out until April and the excerpt released on Tuesday was merely a teaser. It does not get into detail about how Bush and Cheney were involved or reveal what happened behind the scenes.
Yet the teaser provided enough material for administration critics.
"Just when you think the credibility of this White House can't get any lower, another shoe drops," Democratic Senator Charles Schumer said. "If the Bush administration won't even tell the truth to its official spokesman, how can the American people expect to be told the truth either?"
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese