The memoir of former US defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, is to be released soon. In it he says that he ‘made a misstatement’ when he claimed for the first time that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. How long did his lawyers search for this synonym for lying?

The Guardian has obtained an advance copy of the long awaited memoir by one of the key members of the Bush administration:

Rumsfeld admits in his memoirs that he made a mistake in claiming that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction sites round Baghdad and Tikrit, one of the main justifications for launching the Iraq invasion.

Rumsfeld says now: “I made a misstatement.” What he meant to say is there were ‘suspect sites’.

The incident is one of many in the 815-page autobiography, Known and Unknown, in which he seeks to revise the history of the Bush administration on issues ranging from Iraq to the Guantánamo detention centre.

In typical Rumsfeld fashion he takes more than a few swings at, amongst others, the media and their successor, the Obama administration.

Former President George Bush could not be reached for comment. It is suspected he was napping.

[source: The Guardian]