Woodward

First let me say that I am not predisposed towards Woodward's criticism if only because of his previous work with/for this White House, but the pre-press on this book is worth a read as it contains some nuggets.

There're a number of revelations of past mistakes in the Iraq conflict, ignoring calls for more troops, the firing of Garner for same, the frightening power of Rumsfeld, (He got Powell and Card fired?) crazy Cheney, but I think the two things that jumped out most, are the pre-9/11 Osama ignoring,

Mr. Woodward writes that in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks, Mr. Tenet believed that Mr. Rumsfeld was impeding the effort to develop a coherent strategy to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. Mr. Rumsfeld questioned the electronic signals from terrorism suspects that the National Security Agency had been intercepting, wondering whether they might be part of an elaborate deception plan by Al Qaeda.

On July 10, 2001, the book says, Mr. Tenet and his counterterrorism chief, J. Cofer Black, met with Ms. Rice at the White House to impress upon her the seriousness of the intelligence the agency was collecting about an impending attack. But both men came away from the meeting feeling that Ms. Rice had not taken the warnings seriously.

And, the CBS pre-press bit yesterday about the current state of Iraq, the real level of violence, the administration's efforts to hide that, and the prospects of even more violence going forward.

Veteran Washington reporter Bob Woodward tells Mike Wallace that the Bush administration has not told the truth regarding the level of violence, especially against U.S. troops, in Iraq. He also reveals key intelligence that predicts the insurgency will grow worse next year.....

According to Woodward, insurgent attacks against coalition troops occur, on average, every 15 minutes, a shocking fact the administration has kept secret.

Woodward sells books. That's what he does. He likes to paint himself as the great chronicler of presidencies, but in the end, he is no different that a high priced, political Kitty Kelly. Whatever details will sell the book....