Former chief spokesman lambasts Bush, Iraq war in new book

US: A former White House spokesman charges in a new memoir that President George W. Bush was not "open and forthright on Iraq" and relied on "propaganda" to sell the war, US media reported Wednesday.

Scott McClellan, who was Bush's press secretary between 2003-2006, delivers a scathing critique of the administration in a 341-page book titled "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception."

He describes Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as deft at deflecting blame and calls Vice President Dick Cheney "the magic man" who steered policy behind the scenes while leaving no fingerprints, The Washington Post reported. McClellan, 40, who defended White House policy from his podium during press briefings, also writes that the Iraq war "was not necessary" and "was a serious strategic blunder," according to Politico.com.

"I still like and admire President Bush," McClellan writes in the book to be published next week.

"But he and his advisers confused the propaganda campaign with the high level of candor and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and then sustain public support during a time of war. Washington, Wednesday, AFP