More From Upcoming Woodward Book Emerges

By: E&P Staff A top-secret book by Bob Woodward, to be published next week -- with newsmaking excerpts planned for The Washington Post on Sunday along with a "60 Minutes" interview that night -- was purchased by a New York Times reporter through normal channels, and he discloses some of its content in his paper today.

David Sanger writes that the book was "bought by a reporter for The New York Times at retail price in advance of its official release."

The New York Daily News apparently obtained its own copy of the book as well, and published a story in today's editions detailing similar elements of the book's content.

Titled "State of Denial," it is the third in Woodward's series chronicling the Bush White House and the Iraq war, and apparently is far more critical than the first two. It comes as Woodward is criticized for not being skeptical enough in those books, in a new bestseller by Frank Rich of The New York Times.

E&P reported yesterday on a few revelations put out by CBS in advance of the TV interview, and that the Post will be running excerpts or summaries on Sunday and Monday.

Sanger's story today lays out inside word on what could be some disturbing passages for the White House. Some of the incidents and events were reported earlier this month in the Michael Isikoff-David Corn book, "Hubris."

The Sanger piece in the Times opens with:

"The White House ignored an urgent warning in September 2003 from a top Iraq adviser who said that thousands of additional American troops were desperately needed to quell the insurgency there, according to a new book by Bob Woodward, the Washington Post reporter and author. The book describes a White House riven by dysfunction and division over the war.

"The book says President Bush?s top advisers were often at odds among themselves, and sometimes were barely on speaking terms, but shared a tendency to dismiss as too pessimistic assessments from American commanders and others about the situation in Iraq.

"As late as November 2003, Mr. Bush is quoted as saying of the situation in Iraq: 'I don?t want anyone in the cabinet to say it is an insurgency. I don?t think we are there yet.'

"Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld is described as disengaged from the nuts-and-bolts of occupying and reconstructing Iraq ? a task that was initially supposed to be under the direction of the Pentagon ? and so hostile toward Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, that President Bush had to tell him to return her phone calls. The American commander for the Middle East, Gen. John P. Abizaid, is reported to have told visitors to his headquarters in Qatar in the fall of 2005 that 'Rumsfeld doesn?t have any credibility anymore' to make a public case for the American strategy for victory in Iraq."

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Related E&P story: 'Post' Rushes Woodward Web Story After Other Papers Scoop It