Former Bush press secretary says he unknowingly lied on behalf of the president
Former press secretary Scott McClellan says he had unknowingly passed along false information at press conferences regarding the leak of a CIA operative as instructed by Karl Rove, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Dick Cheney and the president himself. McClellan revealed the web of deception in an excerpt from his forthcoming book. The current White House press secretary said that would never happen. For a historical look at presidential lies (e.g., Roosevelt and Yalta, Reagan and Iran/Contra, Johnson and Gulf of Tonkin), why they lie and the detrimental outcomes, check out a book called "When Presidents Lie" by Eric Alterman. It's this kind of stuff that illustrates why freedom of information is important, and why it's dangerous for officials to hide documents and say "trust us, we're the government." See
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