The prime minister protested to President George W Bush about the way intelligence was routinely marked NOFORN (no foreigners), denying access to the US’s closest ally.

In State of Denial, published tomorrow, Woodward reveals that raw intelligence gathered by British operatives in Iraq and fused with the Americans’ own data was stored on the classified Secret Internet Protocol Router Network (SIPRNET).

“The British couldn’t see it, let alone get a copy, because it was marked NOFORN,” Woodward writes.

British pilots flying American warplanes such as F-117 Nighthawks and F015E Strike Eagles were even denied access to classified pilot manuals for the same reason.

“At times it went beyond absurd,” Woodward notes.

After complaints from Blair, Bush promised to lift the NOFORN restrictions, but the Pentagon simply began creating a new, separate SIPRNET to cut out the British, Woodward claims.

Bush confided in Blair about his frustration with the course of the Iraq war, telling him that the Americans were doing “such a lousy job of communications” that he was tempted to just “give this thing to the UK”.

During the first Iraqi elections in January 2005, Blair stepped in to help the country’s then leader, Iyad Allawi, when Bush refused to allow the US embassy or the CIA to “pick winners”.

Blair told Bush that the British would take care of matters and sent two operatives to help Allawi’s election campaign, though to little effect. Woodward also recounts how Bush was so intent on reviewing intelligence data that he met a junior Saudi Arabian diplomat to discuss a highly questionable report suggesting that the Saudis had been tipped off in advance about the July 7 London suicide bombings.

The memos said a captured terrorist suspect had told the Saudis six months before the attacks that four terrorists would mount an operation in London that would include the area around “Edgewood Road”, an apparent reference to the Edgware Road Underground station where one of the bombs exploded.

The suspect claimed the operation would involve four bombers coming from different countries, using explosives from Bosnia and requiring a money transfer of $500,000 (£270,000) to complete the operation.
Woodward said the memo was checked by the CIA and British intelligence. “It soon looked like another fabricator, and clearly should have been handled at a lower level,” he concludes in the book.

This weekend the White House was trying to limit the fall-out in Washington from Woodward’s disclosures. One of his most explosive allegations is that presidential aides twice tried to have Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, fired — once with the support of the first lady, Laura Bush.
Woodward portrays the White House as a “royal court” riven by feuds, where bearers of bad news from Iraq are swatted aside. Rumsfeld emerges as the chief villain.

According to Woodward’s account, he has been at odds with both Laura Bush and Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state. The first lady is said to have told Andrew Card, Bush’s former chief of staff, that Rumsfeld was hurting her husband’s reputation. “I don’t know why he’s not upset with this,” she reportedly said.

Card is believed to be bitter he was forced out of the White House last spring when “the man most responsible for the post-war trouble, the one who should have gone, was staying”. He admitted this weekend that he had discussed Rumsfeld’s possible removal with the president, but denied leading a sacking “campaign” or talking about it with Laura Bush.

Rumsfeld is described feuding with Rice when she was national security adviser. He would refuse to return her calls on the grounds that she was not in the chain of command. Rice complained to Bush, who advised her to charm the defence secretary by being “playful”.

Bush’s resistance to changing course in Iraq is said to have been stiffened by talks with Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon’s secretary of state.

The situation in Iraq is likely to worsen in 2007, according to the leaked report. But if Woodward is to be believed, no amount of criticism or bad news will persuade the president to switch tactics.

“I will not withdraw even if Laura and [his pet dog] Barney are the only ones supporting me,” Bush reportedly said.

Additional reporting: David Leppard

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