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Author Ron Suskind says he will release transcripts of his interviews with a top CIA official that will confirm his story that in 2003 the White House ordered the agency to fabricate a phony document linking Iraq to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.

The letter, written by an Iraqi intelligence official under the control of the CIA, according to Suskind, was concocted to mislead the public into believing that Saddam Hussein conspired with Osama Bin Laden in the attacks, and had gotten uranium from Niger to make nuclear weapons, thus justifying the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Then-CIA Director George Tenet directed agency officials to carry out the subterfuge under orders from the White House, Suskind writes in a new book, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism.

One of the CIA officials involved, Robert Richer, the agency's then-deputy director of clandestine operations, issued a statement this week denying Suskind's allegations.

"I never received direction from George Tenet (CIA director at the time) or anyone else in my chain of command to fabricate a document ... as outlined in Mr. Suskind's book,"  Richer said in a statement that was initially released by the White House .

But in a telephone interview this evening, Suskind said he is planning to release transcripts of his on-the-record interviews with Richer to back up his story.

"There are lots of transcripts, lots of tapes," Suskind told me. "In the next couple days the transcripts will be coming out."

Suskind said he will probably post them on his own Web site.

The author, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner, said he had no plans at present to post transcripts of his on-the-record interviews with another CIA official caught up in the imbroglio, John Maguire.

Maguire, who oversaw the agency's Iraq Operations Group in 2003, also denied complicity in the alleged forgery operation, via a statement issued through Richer.

"I never received any instruction from then Chief/NE Rob Richer or any other officer in my chain of command instructing me to fabricate such a letter," Maguire said. "Further, I have no knowledge to the origins of the letter and as to how it circulated in Iraq."

Suskind says that Richer had pledged to him that he would not deny his quotes when the book came out.

"He said, 'I will stand tall.'"

Suskind says he "felt great sympathy" for both men, who he'd warned that "the heat will be white hot" when the book came out.

But Suskind said he would not release transcripts of his "hours and hours" of interviews with Maguire, "at least at this point,  because "he hasn't had a chance to read the book yet."

Maguire is said to be traveling in the Middle East and could not be reached for comment.   

"I'm prepared to post some transcripts (of interviews) with Richer," he said, "so people can judge for themselves."

"This is a battle between truth and power," Suskind said, "which is what the whole book is about."