“By invading Iraq, the president of the United States has greatly undermined the war on terrorism,” Clarke

WASHINGTON, March 25 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A former White House counter-terrorism advisor accused U.S. President George W. Bush of undermining the war on terrorism with the Iraq invasion, much to discredit justifications for attacking the oil-rich Arab country.

“By invading Iraq, the president of the United States has greatly undermined the war on terrorism,” Richard Clarke said Wednesday, March 24, in testimony to the official commission investigating the September 11 attacks.

Clarke sternly rebuffed criticism directed at him by the White House following the publication of his book, which accused Bush of having ignored the terrorist threat when he took office in January 2001, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

He told the commission that the Bush administration did not view terrorism as an urgent priority in the first place.

“The Bush administration saw terrorism policy as important but not urgent, prior to 9/11,” he said.

“In both the CIA and the military, there was reluctance at senior career levels to fully utilize all of the capabilities available. There was risk aversion,” he said.

Clarke said top Bush administration officials “sent unfortunate signals to the bureaucracy about the administration's attitude toward the Al Qaeda threat”.

He said that the United States delayed too long in sending its forces to capture or kill Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, Washington blames for masterminding the attacks on Washington and New York.

‘No Positions’

Clarke also refuted White House criticism that he had teamed up with President George W. Bush's rival in the November 2 presidential election.

“I've been accused of being a member of John Kerry's campaign team several times this week, including by the White House. So let's just lay that one to bed. I'm not working for the Kerry campaign,” he said.

“The White House has said that my book is an audition for a high-level position in the Kerry campaign. So let me say here, as I am under oath, that I will not accept any position in the Kerry administration should there be one,” he said.

Clarke began his testimony with an emotional apology to the families of people killed when hijackers flew commercial airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

‘Your Government Failed You’

“To them who are here in the room to those who are watching on television, your government failed you,” he said.

“Those entrusted with protecting you failed you. And I failed you,” he said.

The commission, composed of members of both political parties, is scheduled to report its findings in July 2004. Another presidential commission will report next year about the intelligence about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Clarke, who caused a sensation this week with the publication of his book, forcefully fended off questions from Republican members of the commission who questioned his integrity.

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday that administration records prove false Clarke’s “scurrilous allegation that somehow the president of the United States was not attentive to the terrorist threat”.

Less Credible

Clarke’s accusations add up the lack of Bush’s credibility over the motives of invading Iraq.

Bush had said the invasion of the Arab country had made the world safer and reduced the threat of terrorism.

The war on terrorism is Bush's political bread and butter, the USA Today reported.

Public trust in the president's judgment was relatively high after the terrorist attacks and spiked up again during the Iraq invasion, the American paper said.

But the percentage of people who trust Bush has fallen below 50% in some polls since the invasion of Iraq.

The president's job approval rating dipped sharply after weapons inspector David Kay said in January that he did not believe there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

No such international weapons have been found in the Arab country, raising fears the invasion was based on false pretexts.

The death  of British government weapons expert David Kelly triggered the worst crisis of Bush’s war partner British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s six years in power.

Kelly told a BBC journalist that Blair’s dossier on Iraq, used by the British intelligence as a central element for Iraq invasion, was "sexed up".

The so-called "dodgy dossier" claimed that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes of an order to do.

Former Chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said in an interview published Friday, March 5, that the Iraq invasion was illegal as the United States and Britain “hyped” intelligence to attack the oil-rich country,