By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
November 21, 2007
WASHINGTON - Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan
blames President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for efforts
to mislead the public about the role of White House aides in
leaking the identity of a CIA operative.
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 involving operative Valerie Plame.
"There was one problem. It was not true," McClellan
writes, according to a brief excerpt released 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."
Bush's chief of staff at the time was Andrew Card.
The excerpt, posted on the Web site of publisher PublicAffairs,
renews questions about what went on in the West Wing and how
much Bush and Cheney knew about the leak. For years, it was
McClellan's job to field and often duck those types of questions.
Now that he's spurring them, answers are equally hard to come
by.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said it wasn't 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 Tuesday.
Plame maintains the White House quietly outed her to reporters.
Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, said
the leak was retribution for his public criticism of the Iraq
war. The accusation dogged the administration and made Plame
a cause celebre among many Democrats.
McClellan's book, "What Happened," isn't due out
until April, and the excerpt released Monday was merely a teaser.
It doesn't get into detail about how Bush and Cheney were involved
or reveal what happened behind the scenes.
Yet the teaser provided enough fodder for administration critics.
"Just when you think the credibility of this White House
can't get any lower, another shoe drops," said Sen. Charles
Schumer, D-N.Y. "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 the fall of 2003, after authorities began investigating
the leak, McClellan told reporters that he'd personally spoken
to Rove, who was Bush's top political adviser, and Libby, who
was Cheney's chief of staff.
"They're good individuals, they're important members
of our White House team, and that's why I spoke with them,
so that I could come back to you and say that they were not
involved," McClellan said at the time.
Both men, however, were involved. Rove was one of the original
sources for the newspaper column that identified Plame. Libby
also spoke to reporters about the CIA officer and was convicted
of lying about those discussions. He is the only person to
be charged in the case.
Since that news conference, however, the official White House
stance has shifted and it has been difficult to get a clear
picture of what happened behind closed doors around the time
of the leak.
McClellan's flat denials gave way to a steady drumbeat of "no
comment." And Bush's original pledge to fire anyone involved
in the leak became a promise to fire anyone who "committed
a crime."
In a CNN interview earlier this year, McClellan made no suggestion
that Bush knew either Libby or Rove was involved in the leak.
McClellan said his statements to reporters were what he and
the president "believed to be true at the time based on
assurances that we were both given."
Bush most recently addressed the issue in July after commuting
Libby's 30-month prison term. He acknowledged that some in
the White House were involved in the leak. Then, after repeatedly
declining to discuss the ongoing investigation, he said the
case was closed and it was time to move on.
___
Associated Press writer Jennifer Loven contributed to this
report.
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