Bush began Iraq war plans months after 9/11, claims another book

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WASHINGTON - Within months of the September 11, 2001 attacks, US President George Bush was huddling secretly with advisers over Iraq war plans, according to a new book that may help fuel criticisms he was overeager for war.

The book, "Plan of Attack," by Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward, also reports that Bush decided in early 2003 that UN arms inspections in Iraq were ineffective and an invasion was probably inevitable.

"We're not winning. Time is not on our side here. Probably going to have to, we're going to have to go to war," the book quotes Bush as telling national security adviser Condoleezza Rice in early January 2003.

It says CIA Director George Tenet gave Bush advice on shaping the argument that Iraq posed a danger because of weapons of mass destruction. "Don't worry, it's a slam-dunk" case, Tenet assured the president in December 2002.

More than a year after the first bombs fell on Baghdad in March 2003, no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq even though they formed the core of Bush's case for war.

The Woodward book won't hit store shelves until next week. But the Post reported from it on Saturday and the White House has already confirmed a key revelation -- that Bush ordered Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in November 2001 to draw up a fresh war plan for Iraq.

"Let's get started on this," Bush told Rumsfeld, the Post said, quoting Bush's recollection.

The Post's report says Bush got his first detailed war plans five weeks later from the top commander of US troops in the region, General Tommy Franks, and told reporters afterward the two had discussed Afghanistan.

To further guard the secrecy, Bush funded the war preparations through funds earmarked for Afghanistan and old appropriations, the Post reported.

The description of Bush's early focus on war with Iraq is in line with a book about former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and a memoir by former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke which portray Bush as fixated on Iraq in the aftermath of the Sept 11 attacks.

Many Bush critics accuse him of diverting resources from the hunt for al Qaeda network leader Osama bin Laden, the accused mastermind of the attacks.

Bush has insisted he focused squarely on ousting the Taleban and al Qaeda from Afghanistan in the post-Sept 11 period.

The White House said Bush asked Rumsfeld to update the Iraq war plans only after it was clear America was winning the Afghanistan conflict.

Bush, facing a re-election vote in November, held a rare prime-time news conference on Tuesday to underscore his stay-the-course message on Iraq amid rising violence there. Nearly 700 US troops have died, with April the bloodiest month since the toppling of Saddam a year ago.

The book depicts a bitter struggle between Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Colin Powell, who became so upset with each other they are now barely on speaking terms.

The Post said Powell was "an opponent of war who believed Cheney was obsessively trying to establish a connection between Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist network and treated ambiguous intelligence as fact."

Powell urged Bush in the summer of 2002 to take his case to the United Nations, which Bush ultimately did. Cheney viewed the international body as a "waste of time," the Post said.

Part of what brought Bush to a final decision for war was his impatience with chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, it said.

Since the Iraq invasion, Blix has been highly critical of Bush, accusing him of hyping the case for war and ignoring caveats in reports about suspected banned weapons in Iraq.

The United Nations was largely sidelined after Saddam's ouster. But Bush joined his ally Prime Minister Tony Blair on Friday in embracing a lead role for the United Nations in the June 30 transfer of power to Iraqis.

As a young journalist in the 1970s, Woodward broke the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

The Post said Woodward interviewed 75 people for "Plan of Attack," including Bush. It said Bush told him he tried to be a messenger of God's will but did not seek to justify the war based on God.

Asked about one of the ironies of the Iraq saga -- that Bush picked up where his father, former President George Bush left off, by toppling Hussein -- Bush said he did not remember asking for parental support before the war.

"You know he is the wrong father to appeal to in terms of strength. There is a higher father that I appeal to," Bush said, according to the Post.

- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq