By: Greg Mitchell As we reported two weeks ago, the upcoming Bob Woodward book on Iraq and President Bush -- his fourth in this series -- is coming on September 8 and has been a top-secret project with not even the title announced. That has just changed.
The book is titled ?The War Within: A Secret White House History 2006-2008.? It will involve the usual rollout-- excerpts in Woodward's Washington Post and a "60 Minutes" segment.
We predicted in the previous article that it might well include very damaging disclosures or documents for the White House. Now his longtime Simon & Schuster editor Alice Mayhew now states: "There has not been such an authoritative and intimate account of presidential decision making since the Nixon tapes and the Pentagon Papers. This is the declassification of what went on in secret, behind the scenes."
Politico.com notes today: "The book's revelations are likely to propel a re-examination of the Iraq war into the headlines just as the fall presidential campaign is taking off."
It adds: "Woodward has had remarkable cooperation from all levels of the Bush administration, with National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley encouraging top officials to participate. Administration officials tell Politico that Woodward spent two mornings with President Bush and interviewed Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and a host of other senior officials.
"Woodward has regularly visited the White House, State Department, Pentagon, various intelligence agencies and the private homes of generals and other officials, high and low."
White House aides are said to be somewhat optimistic that the book will reflect favorably on Bush, perhaps because the timeline includes what they see as the "success" of the "surge." But Woodward in past interviews has suggested that he has come to see the war as a major mistake, as reflected in the title of his previous volume, "State of Denial."
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