Political books round-up: whiny Colin, Qaeda memoir

Colin Powell claims in a new biography he warned President Bush that Iraq would be a mess. That doesn't quite qualify Powell as a sage, though -- his warnings came in January 2005. He is also quoted in 2004 as bemoaning that "There are people [in the White House] who would like to take me down." Given Powell's willingness to cover up Richard Armitage's role in the Valerie Plame kerfuffle at the expense of innocent members of the administration, I'd say those "people" had the right idea...

Woodward's State of Denial claims that George Tenet warned Condi Rice of a pending Al Qaeda attack two months before 9-11, a warning which she denies. If that were true, I'm kind of surprised that Tenet didn't save it for his own forthcoming book...

Basic Books is publishing the memoir of a former Al Qaeda agent turned Western spy. Titled Inside the Jihad: My Life with Al Qaeda, A Spy’s Story, the account is by Omar Nasiri, a pen name used for obvious reasons. Let's hope that the book shines a valuable light on the Islamofascist organization but also repudiates their hateful, backwards ideology...