Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan has taken up arms against his former boss in a new book, painting US President George W. Bush as having "veered terribly off course" and "rushing" to an unnecessary war in Iraq, US media reported on Tuesday.
In the scathing What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception, the one-time presidential aide also blasted the White House staff over the disastrous handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 by saying they “spent most of the first week in a state of denial,” Washington-based Politico magazine said.
“One of the worst disasters in our nation’s history became one of the biggest disasters in Bush’s presidency,” McClellan wrote in the excerpts released to Politico.
“The perception of this catastrophe was made worse by previous decisions President Bush had made, including, first and foremost, the failure to be open and forthright on Iraq and rushing to war with inadequate planning and preparation for its aftermath,” he wrote.
McClellan, 40, wrote that with Bush still in office the American public has already concluded “that the decision to invade Iraq was a serious strategic blunder.”
“No one, including me, can know with absolute certainty how the war will be viewed decades from now when we can more fully understand its impact. What I do know is that war should only be waged when necessary, and the Iraq war was not necessary,” McClellan wrote.
He also accused former senior Bush strategist and adviser Karl Rove and Lewis “Scooter Libby,” the vice president’s chief of staff, of deceiving him on their role in an explosive CIA leak scandal involving the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.
“Rove, Libby, and possibly Vice President [Dick] Cheney allowed me, even encouraged me, to repeat a lie” that Rove and Libby were not involved in the leak, McClellan wrote.
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
‘DOWNSIZE’: The Trump administration has initiated sweeping cuts to US government-funded media outlets in a move critics said could undermine the US’ global influence US President Donald Trump’s administration on Saturday began making deep cuts to Voice of America (VOA) and other government-run, pro-democracy programming, with the organization’s director saying all VOA employees have been put on leave. On Friday night, shortly after the US Congress passed its latest funding bill, Trump directed his administration to reduce the functions of several agencies to the minimum required by law. That included the US Agency for Global Media, which houses Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and Asia and Radio Marti, which beams Spanish-language news into Cuba. On Saturday morning, Kari Lake, a former Arizona gubernatorial and US
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
RSS