Woodward: Bush lied [VIDEO]

In this clip from Sunday night's 60 Minutes, Bob Woodward is welcomed aboard the train that left the station about 3+ years ago.

Still, it's significant that a man with such cred goes on TV and effectively says that Bush lied.

In this clip, Woodward points to recently declassified info from our own intelligence agencies that puts the lie to years of Bush spin.

Again, welcome aboard Mr. Woodward. Coulda used you earlier but glad you could make it...

The Daily Mail's coverage opens:

An explosive new book claims that Tony Blair pleaded in vain with George Bush to share vital combat intelligence about the Iraq war.

The author, Watergate journalist Bob Woodward, paints a devastating portrait of Bush as an incompetent pawn of his chief advisers and the Pentagon's war planners.

He says that, with Bush locked in a desperate battle to win re-election in 2004, they were more interested in hiding the truth about the failures to thwart the September 11 attacks and find weapons of mass destruction than running a competent military operation.

Full transcript, courtesy Jamie L, after the jump. Wallace: President Bush's former chief of staff, Andy Card, said the Bush presidency will be judged by three things: Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. Bob Woodward, of Watergate fame, reports that. He's just completed his third book on the Bush presidency, "state of denial." Woodward spent more than two years, interviewed more than 200 people– including most of the top officials in the administration– and he came to a damning conclusion: That for the last three years, the white house has not been honest with the American public.

Bob Woodward: It is the oldest story in the coverage of government: The failure to tell the truth.

Wallace: When you say the Bush administration has not told the truth about iraq, what do you mean?

Woodward: I think probably the prominent… most prominent example is the level of violence.

Reporter: Not just the Sunnis against Shi'as, that gets reported every day, but attacks on U.S. And allied forces. Woodward says that's the most important measure of violence in iraq, and he unearthed this graph– classified secret– that shows those attacks have increased dramatically over the last three years.

Woodward: Getting to the point now where there are 800, 900 attacks a week. That's more than 100 a day. Four attacks an hour, attacking our forces.

Wallace: Woodward says the government had kept this trend secret for years before finally declassifying the graph just three weeks ago. And Woodward accuses president Bush and the pentagon of making false claims of progress in Iraq, claims contradicted by facts that are being kept secret. For example, Woodward says an intelligence report classified secret from the joint chiefs of staff concluded– in large print– that the Sunni Arab insurgency is gaining strength and increasing capacity despite political progress. And insurgents retain the capabilities to increase the level of violence through next year. But just two days later, a public defense department report said just the opposite: "Violent action will begin to wane in early 2007." What are we supposed to make of that?

Woodward: The truth is that the assessment by the intelligence experts is that next year– now, next year's 2007– is going to get worse, and in public you have the president and you have the pentagon saying, "oh, no, things are going to get better." Now there's public and then there's private. But what did they do with the private? They stamp it secret. No one's supposed to know. Why is that secret? The insurgents know what they're doing. They know the level of violence and how effective they are. Who doesn't know? The American public.

Wallace: President Bush says over and over, as Iraqi forces stand up, U.S. Forces will stand down. The number of Iraqis in uniform today, I understand, is up to 300,000?