A White House Forgery Scandal?

"The White House plans to push back hard. Fratto added: 'Ron Suskind makes a living from gutter journalism. He is about selling books and making wild allegations that no one can verify, including the numerous bipartisan commissions that have reported on pre-war intelligence.'"

Here's a White House statement on the book: "The subject of pre-war intelligence has been exhaustively examined by numerous individuals, committees of Congress, and expert bipartisan commissions. Indeed, it is difficult to identify a subject as thoroughly examined as this one - including the WMD Commission and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Report on pre-war intelligence.

"There were lots of unsubstantiated messages being sent prior to the invasion of Iraq - none of that is new. This is a rehash of very old reporting -- reports of this particular contact were reported on extensively in 2003. What is a fact is that intelligence estimates at that time were not accurate, but it was the intelligence we all relied on, and our intelligence reached same conclusions as other intelligence agencies around the world."

Suskind Makes the Rounds

Here's Suskind talking to Steve Inskeep on NPR this morning:

Inskeep: "Who in the White House ordered this fake letter to be made?"

Suskind: "You know, it is from the highest reaches in the White House."

Inskeep: "Meaning that you don't have someone on the record saying 'This was President Bush' 'This was Dick Cheney' but it appears that's where it would have to come from?"

Suskind: "It would have to come from the very top."

Suskind adds: "This in fact is a violation of the laws that authorize the CIA. The CIA cannot run deception operations on the American public."

Habbush, the intelligence chief, also figures prominently in another major indictment in Suskind's book: That Bush had ample reason to know there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and intentionally lied his way to war.

Suskind was on NBC's Today Show this morning. Here's how David Gregory set up the interview.

Gregory: "This book pulls no punches, claiming that President Bush knew that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, but ordered the invasion anyway. It is a controversial look at administration decision-making -- with the former director of central intelligence, George Tenet, telling NBC News the charge against the president is 'just wrong.' . . .