It's a T.S. Eliot atmosphere hanging over the end time of the Bush administration, "burnt-out ends of smoky days."

In this final summer of Bush, the publication of three books and the upcoming arrival of another focus on the legality of the president's conduct.

In "The Way of the World," journalist Ron Suskind starkly claims, "The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush [an Iraqi official] to Saddam" placing Sept. 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta in Iraq for training.

In other words, the government fabricated evidence linking Saddam Hussein to Al-Qaeda, thus further justifying the Iraq invasion.

The administration has strongly denied the charge, but Suskind has provided partial transcripts of his taped interviews with former CIA agent Ron Richer backing up his claim. No audio was available.

"The Dark Side" is Jane Mayer's account of the president's tacit approval of the use of torture on terrorist suspects, a direct violation of the Geneva Conventions, international legal standards developed in part by the United States after World War II.

Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the conventions did apply to so-called "enemy combatants," effectively negating the administration's claim that it could ignore the international standards.

"There is no record that Bush ever objected" to the detention program that created questionable conditions at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and secret prisons, Mayer, a New Yorker reporter, wrote.

She found that the International Red Cross determined that the United States was using torture and that it warned the CIA last year in a secret report that its actions constituted "war crimes."

Much of Mayer's reporting has appeared elsewhere although she does provide more details on efforts inside the administration to halt the dubious practices.

Then there's Scott McClelland, former Bush press secretary, who writes in "What Happened" that the administration manufactured justifications for the invasion of Iraq and misled him, causing him to lie during press conferences.

We now await the mighty conclusions from the ne plus ultra of Washington insiders, Bob Woodward. It will be delivered Sept. 8 by Simon & Schuster in a still untitled fourth installment of Woodward's history of the administration.

It will be "the most provocative and intimate examination of the Bush administration to date," the publisher promises.

What new revelations Woodward will deliver is impossible to say. What is certain is that Simon & Schuster will try to manage publicity through the long discredited "embargo" system.

Publicity director Victoria Meyer announced there will be no advance peeks. As always, though, the New York Times will get a copy before Sept. 8 and spoil the fun.

Despite the seriousness and solid work by their authors, these books must seem to be a case of overkill to a public long jaded by the steady drumbeat of disclosures and allegations.

I confess that I've found Suskind's and Mayer's writing tough going after reading earlier books on the same topics.

In this presidential election year, the country has appeared to have moved on, content to let sleeping dogs lie despite these strong efforts to wake them up.