The Plame Game continues

MCLELLAN SPEAKS OUT

A former White House press secretary, Scott McLellan, has come out with some sensational allegations regarding the Valerie Plame affair.

The identity of the CIA agent was wrongfully revealed after her husband accused the Bush Administration of manipulating intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. Mr McLellan has stopped short of claiming President George Bush himself told lies. He does accuse his most senior staff of deliberately providing false information as part of the cover-up.

Flashback to the fall of 2003 and a White House under siege.

SCOTT McLELLAN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SECRETARY: The President has made it very clear that the leaking of classified information is a serious matter and he takes it very seriously.

At issue is the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame and rumblings that top White House aides Karl Rove and 'Scooter' Libby, might have been involved.

SCOTT McLELLAN: They are important members of our White House team and that is why I spoke with them, so that I could come back to you and say that they were not involved. I had no doubt of that in the beginning, but I like to check my information to make sure it is accurate before I report back to you, and that's exactly what I did.

Now Scott McLellan says he was misled.

"It was not true," he writes in an upcoming book. "I had unknowingly passed along false information."

Then comes the potential blockbuster:

"And five of the highest-ranking people in the Administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the Vice President, the President's Chief of Staff, and the President himself."

Libby was convicted of obstructing the investigation, Rove was not charged. Given McLellan's new take, Plame's husband says the President and Vice President have some explaining to do.

JOE WILSON, FORMER US AMBASSADOR: As a bare minimum, for openers, I think it is incumbent upon the President and Vice President now to release a transcript of their statements to the special prosecutor so that we now have a fuller understanding of what they knew, when they knew it and what they said to Justice.

McLellan is declining interview requests until his book is finished. His publisher, though, tells CNN the former top Bush confidante is not accusing the President of lying to him.

PETER OSNOS, PUBLIC AFFAIRS BOOKS: Scott's not suggesting that the President himself was party to a conspiracy to mislead. But it's pretty damn clear that other people knew what they had done and didn't tell the truth.

Back in March, McLellan suggested to CNN's Larry King that both he and the President were misled.

SCOTT McLELLAN: I said what I believed to be true at the time. It was also what the President believed to be true at the time, based on assurances we were both given. Knowing what I know today, I would never have said that back then.

McLellan's new account raises fresh questions about what Mr Bush knew and whether he was lied to, not to mention the Vice President's role. The book, a rare behind-the-scenes look from a former Bush insider, is due in April.

	So, Scottie McClellan admits to what we (most of us) knew all along....	schnoo	Tue Nov 20	13
	Bush Press Man: We Lied, and Lied, and Lied	The First Post	Sun Nov 25	2
	Former Aide Blames Bush for Leak Deceit	Associated Press	Tue Nov 20	117
	Publisher: McClellan doesn't believe Bush lied	msnbc.com	Wed Nov 21	4
	McClelland Confirms Bush et al Conspired to Leak and Cover-up the Leak of Plame's Identity. Impeachment should Follow	OpEdNews.Com Progressive	Tue Nov 20	0