Bush Praises African Success

But detected deadly White House toxin turned out to be false alarm

(NEWSER) - Condoleezza Rice recounted the day that she, President Bush, and Dick Cheney believed they had been exposed to a lethal toxin by terrorists. Cheney suddenly appeared on a secure video conference screen just weeks after 9/11 while Rice and Bush were traveling in China for the APEC summit. He warned them that White House sensors had detected botulinum toxin, and "we all—those of us exposed—were going to die," Rice revealed in an ABC interview . "I remember everybody just sort of freezing, and the president saying, ‘What was that? What was that, Dick?’” recalled Rice, who was national security adviser at the time. “We were just a little unnerved." More»

She recalls clashes with Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush

(NEWSER) - It's time for Dick Cheney to take a little return fire from Condi Rice. Less than 2 months after his memoir described her as turning tearful during a political discussion , Condoleezza Rice has written her own book, No Higher Honor, which comes out next month, the New York Times reports. Rice recalls White House clashes and encounters with creepy foreign leaders:

• Rice argued with "ultra-hawkish" Cheney that terrorism suspects can't just be "disappeared"; President Bush agreed, and moved several from secret prisons to Guantanamo Bay.
• Rice opposed increasing troop levels in Iraq, telling Bush, "If they want to have a civil war we're going to have to let them." The president appeared pained over a war going badly, she writes.

Former VP discusses his conflicts with Condoleezza, Powell, Tenet

(NEWSER) - And the revelations from Dick Cheney's new memoir just keep coming: yesterday, news of a secret resignation letter. Today, the New York Times , which obtained a copy of In My Time , reports that Cheney pushed Bush to bomb what the US believed to be a nuclear reactor site in Syria in 2007. But others in the White House, wary of a repeat of the Iraq/WMD scenario, balked, and Bush opted to take the diplomatic route. "I again made the case for US military action against the reactor,” Cheney wrote. "But I was a lone voice. After I finished, the president asked, ‘Does anyone here agree with the vice president?’ Not a single hand went up around the room.” More»

Group wants torture allegations investigated

(NEWSER) - Human Rights Watch wants George W. Bush and his top officials prosecuted for war crimes and criminal conspiracy, the Guardian reports. In a new report, the US group calls for foreign governments to move forward with the prosecution if the Obama administration does not investigate. In addition to allegations of torture and prisoner mistreatment, the report also accuses the Bush administration's legal team of conspiring to prepare invalid opinions authorizing such abuses. More»

$400M, or 380 tons of food, needed in Eastern Africa

(AP) - An estimated 4.5 million Ethiopians are in need of food assistance, says a government official—an increase of 40%. Nearly $400 million is needed to fill the country's food gap, adds Ethiopia's state minister of agriculture, who says Ethiopia needs to distribute 380 metric tons of food. A drought centered in the triangle where Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia meet has sent tens of thousands of people pouring into refugee camps in search of food . The director of the US government aid mission in Ethiopia says US officials are concerned that the severity of the drought is being underestimated. More»