Former White House spokesman pans Bush

FORMER White House press secretary Scott McClellan charges in an explosive new book due out next week that US President George W Bush and top aides shaded the truth to make the case for the Iraq war.

McClellan, the first Bush insider to write a book criticising his former boss, drew instant fire last night from former White House colleagues with whom he was once close. They wondered why he stayed on the job if he had those feelings that he never expressed to them.

“If he thinks he’s going to ingratiate himself to his critics, he’s sorely mistaken, and unfortunately, the only friends he had, he just lost,” said Dan Bartlett, a former White House counsellor.