WASHINGTON, Nov. 20 -- Former White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in his new book that President George W. Bush misled the media in the CIA leak scandal, according to an excerpt of the book released Tuesday.

       In the book titled "What Happened", McClellan said top administration officials -- including Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney -- were involved in his "unknowingly" passing along false information about the leak of a CIA operative's identity.

       McClellan, a long-time Bush aide, served as White House press secretary from July 2003 until April 2006.

       In October 2003, as controversy grew about the leak of the name of Valerie Plame, the CIA operative, McClellan told reporters that Karl Rove, then the Bush's top political adviser, and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's chief of staff, had not been involved.

       "There was one problem. It was not true," McClellan writes in the new book, which is to be released in April.

       However, he stops short of giving any specifics about how he believes the top administration officials were involved in the dissemination of the false information.

       Asked about the released excerpt, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said, "The president has not misled his spokespeople, nor would he."