A best-selling book by star US journalist Bob Woodward has added to White House unease over mounting attacks on preparations for the Iraq war.
Woodward's "Plan of Attack" is the latest book to allege that President George W. Bush started planning for a war against Saddam Hussein soon after the September 11, 2001.
Bush has been on the defensive over its assertion that he started ordered secret war preparations in December 2001; Secretary of State Colin Powell has been put on the spot over its claim that he was dubious about the war, while Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry has taken up accounts that Saudi Arabia had offered to bring oil prices down to help Bush's re-election campaign.
The White House has been forced to deny the oil deal claims in the book and Woodward's assertion that Bush sought to shift money intended for the war on terrorism to planning for an Iraq invasion, without telling Congress.
Since "Plan of Attack" was released Monday, nearly every top administration official has been intensely questioned about one point or other in it.
And Woodward's work has become another instant hit, joining "Against All Enemies" the book by former White House counter-terrorism advisor Richard Clarke, who accused Bush of making Iraq the priority over the al Qaeda threat before the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Ron Suskind's account of Paul O'Neil's tenure as treasury secretary, "Price of Loyalty" also said that Bush was obsessed with Iraq after he took office in January 2001.
"Plan of Attack" has focused much of the attention on Powell. It said that he was largely kept out of the war planning process until he was told at a meeting on January 13, 2003 that a war was planned.
Publicly, the United States was then committed to attempts to find a diplomatic solution to the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction crisis of the time. And national security advisor Condoleezza Rice and other top officials have denied there was such early talk of a war.
It was "not a meeting to have a discussion. This was a meeting to tell Colin Powell that a decision had been made and that the president wanted his support," Woodward wrote.
Powell has admitted that he was a source for the book, but has strongly denied the book's contention that he had been "semi-despondent" in the run-up to the war because his desire to pursue a diplomatic resolution was being ignored by Vice President Dick Cheney and other hawkish members of the administration.
The book also said that Powell and Cheney were barely on speaking terms. Wrong again, said Powell, who insisted he was fully involved in planning for the war.
Rumsfeld was closely questioned Tuesday about passages describing a January 11, 2003 meeting in which he was said to have described the war plan to the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar, quoting Rumsfeld as saying "you can take it to the bank this is going to happen."
Rumsfeld's account was: "my best recollection - I hate to use the word 'certain' because no one's memory is perfect, but I can't believe the decision had been made by the president during that period."
But even if Woodward's book has made the administration uncomfortable, Bush's re-election campaign has made it recommended reading on its website www.georgewbush.com. According to the New York Times, campaign officials believe Bush comes off well from the account.
"Though there might be some dispute about some factual things, we are overall heartened by the book," Matthew Dowd, the Bush campaign's chief strategist, was quoted as saying.
"It's a very good reflection of a thoughtful, resolute president going into a very tough decision. We think in the end it will be a very good thing."
The books by Clarke and Suskind are not recommended.
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