Bob Woodward

'Truthdig tips its hat this week to Bob Woodward, whose book “State of Denial” plowed over much-trod territory and still managed to surface plenty of fresh headlines.

Woodward’s book, the third in a trilogy about President Bush’s response to the 9/11 attacks, takes a much more critical stance and probing look into Bush administration lies and malfeasance than did the first two books of the cycle, “Plan of Attack” and “Bush at War.”
Indeed, if Woodward’s last two books earned him justifiable criticism as being the Bush administration’s chief stenographer, “State of Denial” has gone a long way toward restoring the reputation of the man who, along with Carl Bernstein, broke the Watergate stories that ultimately brought down the Nixon administration.
This time ’round, of course, Woodward is far from the only reporter on the beat of chronicling Bush administration lies in the run-up and prosecution of the Iraq war. Indeed, his return to grace (if that’s what has indeed happened) comes on the heels of several years’ worth of books by other investigative reporters and former Bush administration insiders who have already confirmed the basic narrative that Woodward describes in “State of Denial.”
All that notwithstanding, “State of Denial” is filled with many news nuggets and compelling, colorful details that have until now gone unreported.
Among them:
· Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ignored an urgent July 2001 warning by then-CIA Director George Tenet that an Al Qaeda attack was imminent.
· Bush & Co. routinely solicit the advice of former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
(In his “60 Minutes” interview, Woodward said Kissinger “is almost like a member of the [Bush] family,” and that in his frequent meetings with Bush and Cheney, Kissinger’s dogmatic “stay the course” advice on Iraq amounts to “fighting the Vietnam War again.")

· Watch it
Other revelations:
· Bush has been covering up the extent of the violence in Iraq.
· Bush had to order Rumsfeld to take Rice’s phone calls; and a top U.S. general told visitors that Rumsfeld had no credibility left on Iraq.
· Bush’s former chief of staff, Andy Card, urged the president to fire Rumsfeld.

'Zie: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200601006_truthdigger_week_bob_woodward/