Bush Aide Blasts Bush and Media

Scott McClellan, the former White House press secretary, is to publish a book next week highly critical of The Whitehouse's Iraq venture.

McClellan resigned from the White House on April 19, 2006, after nearly three years as Bush's press secretary.

In "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception" McClellan says that President Bush failed to be "open and forthright on Iraq" and relied on "propaganda" to sell the war.

McClellan claims that Bush and his aides "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."

McClellan also accuses the media of being "probably too deferential to the White House" when it came to public discourse over the choice to invade Iraq.

Adding:

"The collapse of the administration's rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise...

In this case, the 'liberal media' didn't live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served."

Restraint Urged

Judge Rauf Abdel-Rashid, at the trial of the former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, called on all parties involved in the case yesterday to show self-restraint and maintain professional behaviour during the trial.

Judge Rauf Abdel-Rashid urged the legal teams, defendants and plaintiffs to refrain from mutual abuse and show appropriate behaviour in court.

On Sunday, there were sharp exchanges between Aziz and one of the witnesses, Mahir Rashid.

Rashid said his brother, one of the executed traders, had been killed on the instigation of Aziz's son, who was involved in trading in foreign currencies and saw his brother as a threatening competitor.

Aziz dismissed the accusations and insults were traded.

The trial continues.