BEIJING, Nov. 22 -- Former White House press
secretary Scott McClellan has blamed President George Bush and Vice President
Dick Cheney for misleading 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
recounts 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
writes, according to a brief excerpt released on Tuesday. "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."
The excerpt, posted on the Web site of publisher
PublicAffairs, renews 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 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.
McClellan's book, "What Happened," is not due out
until April, and the excerpt released 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.
(Source: Shanghai Daily/Agencies)
Former aide says Bush misled media in CIA leak case
WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 (Xinhua) -- Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in his new book that President George W. Bush misled the media in the CIA leak scandal, according to an excerpt of the book released Tuesday. Full story
