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<p>CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Al-Qaida's No. 2 has issued a new video tape calling on Muslims to unite in jihad, or holy war, and support the Islamist movement in Iraq, a U.S.-based intelligence monitoring group said Wednesday.</p> <p>Ayman al-Zawahri is seen in the one-hour and 35 minutes tape dressed in white and addressing topics from Iraq to Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian territories and Egypt, said the U.S.-based SITE intelligence group, which monitors al-Qaida messages.</p>

It is rare to have books exploring the legacy of a presidential administration still in its first term. It is rarer still to have the number of insider accounts that Americans have access to in 2004. “These books appear to be painting history before our eyes,” said Charlotte Abbott, news editor of Publishers Weekly. “No one in the industry of publishing can remember a time since Watergate when so many political books have come out and the public has been interested – and a lot of those Watergate titles came out after.” One of the reporters who first exposed Watergate,...

<p>Among the disclosures in Bob Woodward's new book, "Plan of Attack," is that Secretary of State Colin Powell had reservations about going to war in Iraq.</p> <p>This comes as no great surprise, though we do wonder what President Bush thinks of a Cabinet officer who uses a book to distance himself from the boss on an issue that is central to his re-election campaign. The last ranking official who used Mr. Woodward to pad his own reputation at the expense of the President was budget director Richard Darman as George H.W. Bush was running for re-election. If Mr. Powell disagreed so passionately about Iraq, the more honorable path would have been to resign -- before the war.</p>

Bob Woodward's new book "Plan of Attack" tells the story of White House speechwriter Michael Gerson, a former reporter for U.S. News & World Report, who accompanied President Bush to West Point, where Bush announced a signal change in American foreign policy: a call for more pre-emptive actions. Afterward, Gerson told a reporter the speech would be quoted for years to come. The reporter replied, "There's no news in that speech. You don't use the word Iraq." "Gerson was stunned," Woodward wrote. That episode tells you in a nutshell how American newspapers and political pundits have fallen down on the...

A funny thing has happened to the accusation that President Bush "lied" or "misled" Americans about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Bob Woodward's new book, "Plan of Attack," blows the charge away, not that you've read about that in many other places. Instead, we've all heard mostly about the book's report that Colin Powell wasn't keen on going to war. This we already knew. The real news is what Mr. Woodward tells us about the President's state of mind concerning Iraq's weapons when he ordered American troops into battle: His Director of Central Intelligence had assured him that the...

A funny thing has happened to the accusation that President Bush "lied" or "misled" Americans about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Bob Woodward's new book, "Plan of Attack," blows the charge away, not that you've read about that in many other places. Instead, we've all heard mostly about the book's report that Colin Powell wasn't keen on going to war. This we already knew. The real news is what Mr. Woodward tells us about the President's state of mind concerning Iraq's weapons when he ordered American troops into battle: His Director of Central Intelligence had assured him that the...

<p>A funny thing has happened to the accusation that President Bush "lied" or "misled" Americans about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Bob Woodward's new book, "Plan of Attack," blows the charge away, not that you've read about that in many other places.</p>

'Plan of Attack': a new front on the war over sources. Woodward talked to dozens but only three are given direct attribution By David Folkenflik Sun Staff Originally published April 25, 2004 Andrew Card, the White House chief of staff, is a pretty important guy. You learn that when you read journalist Bob Woodward's new book, Plan of Attack, an investigation of the Bush administration's extensive preparations to invade Iraq. You learn details about Card, that he worked as a lobbyist for General Motors and that his wife is a Methodist minister. You even encounter descriptions of Card's emotions and...

<p>Talk radio and cable news have eaten up hours in chewing over Bob Woodward's "Plan of Attack," debating its insider look at the decision-making before the war in Iraq - who said what, and when.</p> <p>Less energy has been spent on a more basic issue: Can a book that reconstructs events without naming its sources be trusted as real history?</p>

The books come and go, but the plot is always the same--vanity, duplicity, flattery, and guile.WASHINGTON WENT THROUGH one of its Woodward spasms last week. It unwound in the usual manner. First came the faint, premonitory rumors, gaining force as the publishing date approached, about what might be in Bob Woodward's latest book; then the suggestive news reports dribbled out over the premiere weekend, until one news organization or another boldly broke the publisher's embargo, followed by stories about the story that broke the embargo. At last on Sunday there was the television kickoff on 60 Minutes, in which Woodward...

Bob Woodward's new book is less an expose than an inkblot test. It's remarkable how people can see the same words on the same pages - and come away with entirely different pictures. In an election year, it's to be expected that members of the opposition party would thumb eagerly through a book like "Plan of Attack," looking for stones to throw at the incumbent president. More troubling is that so many media figures also are viewing the book through a partisan prism - headlining whatever casts the president in an unfavorable light, conspicuously ignoring those chapters that challenge the...

Bob Woodward's new book, Plan of Attack, is like a play in which the most important scenes occur offstage. In a "Note to Readers," Woodward writes: The aim of this book is to provide the first detailed, behind-the-scenes account of how and why President George W. Bush, his war council and allies decided to launch a preemptive war in Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein. Yet this is precisely what the book does not provide. Woodward never tells us why Bush decided to go to war. Nor does he pin down just when he made his decision. His opening anecdote—and, as...

At issue was a passage in Woodward's "Plan of Attack," an account published this week of Bush's decision making about the war, quoting Rumsfeld as telling Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to Washington, in January 2003 that he could "take that to the bank" that the invasion would happen. The comment came in a key moment in the run-up to the war, when Rumsfeld and other officials were briefing Bandar on a military plan to attack and invade Iraq, and pointing to a top-secret map that showed how the war plan would unfold. The book reports that the...

<p>WASHINGTON — Bob Woodward (search) has been all over the news since he released his book this week on the run-up to the Iraq war, but so far everyone involved in the story says Woodward's flair for drama may have gotten in the way of the facts.</p>

"My buddy" John Kerry, Bob Woodward political cartoon.  Apr. 21, 2004... Woodward’s new book "Plan of Attack"  is gathering steam on the question he raised that Saudi Arabia would lower gas prices close to the election to help Bush win. Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry tried to capitalize on the allegation, calling it "disgusting if true." Jay Leno, on the Tonight Show, asked the question of how Kerry thought he would get elected President advocating for high gas prices. The Saudis have released an announcement that they are not manipulating the market to affect the elections outcome. The White...

<p>April 21, 2004 -- ON Monday's "Nightline," ABC's Terry Moran related how the White House likes Bob Woodward's new book, since "It portrays a president who's deeply engaged, who is challenging his subordinates, who is very concerned about Iraqi civilians and most importantly politically for the administration, a president who did not distort the pre-war intelligence about weapons of mass destruction, but who was given this intelligence from the CIA."</p>

Bob Woodward is back with yet another book, "Plan of Attack." That title made me first think the work was a manual on unseating George W. Bush. Discussing his book on CBS's "60 Minutes," Mr. Woodward said, in essence, that Dick Cheney ran the Iraq war and talked President Bush into it, though President Bush was never crazy about it; the CIA botched everything again; the one man in the administration we can trust, Colin Powell, was kept out of the loop; God talks to President Bush and President Bush listens; and President Bush is an idiot who disdains the...

<p>April 21, 2004 -- BOB Woodward has misled the nation! In the run-up to the publication of his new book, "Plan of Attack," he sexed up his own intelligence findings! Quick, convene a panel at the Columbia Journalism School!</p> <p>How did Woodward deceive the audience of "60 Minutes" and the entire press corps? He made people believe "Plan of Attack" rivaled Richard Clarke's bestseller in Bush-bashing - by pulling out a few isolated sentences from the book's endless 465 pages to make it appear as though "Plan" were a startling indictment of the war in Iraq.</p>

<p>This week, Sen. John Kerry accused the administration of playing global politics with gas prices. Under scrutiny, that scandalous charge raises more questions about Mr. Kerry than President Bush.</p> <p>The source of the allegations was Bob Woodward's recently published book, "Plan of Attack." Mr. Woodward wrote that the Saudis planed "to fine-tune oil prices to prime the economy in 2004." Mr. Kerry seized upon the text to accuse Mr. Bush of making a "secret deal" with the Saudis to reduce oil prices in time for the election.</p>

<p>Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, responding to a new book about the Bush administration's decision to go to war in Iraq, said yesterday he was closely involved with planning for the attack and had been as "committed as anyone else" to toppling the government of Saddam Hussein.</p>

White House Web Site to Promote Woodward Book The official White House Web site will feature a link to Bob Woodward's new book, "Plan of Attack," even though its release has spurred a firestorm of criticism of President Bush and prompted two senior White House officials to issue strong denials of some of the book's key allegations. "I'm told by the White House they're putting this book on - linking it to their Web site," senior Bush-Cheney adviser Mary Matalin told Fox News Channel's Greta Van Susteren on Monday. Matalin, who looked somewhat chagrined as she announced the development, explained...

Secretary of State Colin Powell refuted on Monday most of the allegations reported by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward in his new book, "Plan of Attack." In an interview with radio host Sean Hannity, Powell challenged Woodward's portrayal of him as someone who was "semi-despondent" over President Bush's decision to go to war. "I was not semi-despondent at any time," Powell said, noting that Bush took his advice to go to the United Nations to make the case for war against Iraq. "The president took it to the UN. in Sept. 2002. He made his case to the world. And...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, promised President Bush the Saudis would cut oil prices before November to ensure the U.S. economy is strong on election day, journalist Bob Woodward said in a television interview on Sunday. In an interview with CBS's "60 Minutes" about his new book "Plan of Attack" on the Bush administration's preparations for the Iraq war, Woodward, a senior editor at the Washington Post, said Prince Bandar pledged the Saudi's would try to fine-tune oil prices to prime the U.S. economy for the election -- a move they...

I am watching 60 Minutes and I am utterly shocked that the Amdinistration would allow Woodward unlimited access. This is just stunning. Sometimes this administration behaves so stupidly it is baffling.

Condoleezza Rice, President Bush's national security adviser, said today that the president decided in March 2003 to go to war against Saddam Hussein, not in January 2003, as a new book contends. She said she was with Mr. Bush in Crawford, Tex., in January 2003 when he expressed his frustration with how weapons inspections were proceeding in Iraq. "He said, `Now, I think we probably are going to have to go to war, we're going to have to go to war,' " Ms. Rice recalled today on the CBS News program "Face the Nation." "It was not a decision to...

<p>Intelligence on UN Inspectors Fed Bush War Decision (Update2) April 18 (Bloomberg) -- Intelligence reports indicating former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was moving and concealing things and that lead United Nations inspector Hans Blix wasn't doing all he was supposed to helped President George W. Bush decide to go to war in January 2003, a new book says.</p>

WASHINGTON When Colin Powell decided that Dick Cheney's crazy "fever," as he called the vice president's obsession with linking 9/11 and Saddam, was leading the country into a war it did not need to fight, he should have bared his heart to the president and made his case using the Powell doctrine — with overwhelming force. Mr. Bush probably wouldn't have listened. He was in Mr. Cheney's gloomy sway, and Rummy's bellicose sway. And W. felt competitive with his more popular top diplomat.But Mr. Powell should have tried. And if the president didn't listen, the secretary should have quit —...

Legendary journalist Bob Woodward discusses his new book, which reveals secret details of the White House’s plans to attack Iraq, for the first time on television in an interview with correspondent Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes, Sunday, April 18, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. Woodward interviewed 75 of the people who helped prepare for the war, including President Bush – the only source who speaks for attribution -- in the upcoming book, “Plan of Attack,” published by Simon & Schuster. Both CBSNews.com and Simon & Schuster are units of Viacom. In the interview, Woodward talked about how the administration was able...

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) quietly ordered creation of a war plan against Iraq (news - web sites) in November 2001 while overseeing a divided national security team, including a vice president determined to link Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) to al-Qaida, says a new book. Bob Woodward, in "Plan of Attack," says Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) believed Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) developed — as Woodward puts it — an "unhealthy fixation" on trying to find a connection between Iraq and the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks....

Blair refused offer of get-out clause on Iraq Revelations about run-up to war blight bid to present united front Tony Blair rejected George Bush's offer of keeping British troops out of Iraq, it emerged yesterday, as the two leaders mounted a united front on the year-long campaign. The US president welcomed his closest ally to the White House on a day when an impressively sourced book by the Watergate journalist Bob Woodward laid bare damaging revelations of their conduct in the run-up to the war. In the book, Plan of Attack, Mr Woodward writes that Mr Bush offered Mr Blair...

(2004-04-17) -- A new book about Bob Woodward's new book, Plan of Attack, reveals that President George Bush did not tell some top aides what he had told Bob Woodward in an interview in which he revealed that he didn't tell some top aides about the early stages of planning for a war in Iraq. The newer of the two books, The Making of Bob Woodward's Plan of Attack, will be released next week, one day after Plan of Attack appears in bookstores. The book reveals that the source of "shocking" quotes which Woodward's book attributes to President Bush, may...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush asked his Pentagon chief in November 2001 to draw up a war plan against Iraq, the White House confirmed on Friday. The admission from the White House about the early timing of a discussion about war strategy came after the administration was questioned about a new book by journalist Bob Woodward. The revelation is sure to fire up some of Bush's critics who have accused him of being too eager to go to war against Iraq and of diverting resources from the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept 11 attacks. The...

President's men bitterly split on Iraq David Teather in New York Saturday April 17, 2004 The Guardian The Watergate journalist Bob Woodward is no stranger to publishing sensations, and his latest book again unearths deeply inconvenient details for the man in the White House - and his key ally in Downing Street. The book, Plan of Attack, portrays a pre-war White House as a scheming and divided place, presided over by a sometimes hapless George Bush, driven towards war by a forceful vice-president, Dick Cheney, and an overly confident CIA. Mr Woodward was given wide access to the White House...

Next Sunday, CBS NEWS and 60 MINUTES will feature a long interview with Bob Woodward, whose soon-to-be-released book PLAN OF ATTACK reportedly will contain important new details about the administration's decision to go to war against Iraq. But this time, even though 60 MINUTES Executive Producer Don Hewitt still argues that he does not believe it is necessary to do so, CBS will acknowledge that its parent company owns the book and will profit from any and all sales! "I'm doing it from here on out, only because of the brouhaha about it," Hewitt tells Sunday editions of the NY...