Bush 'did not believe terror threat was urgent'

THE Bush administration's former counter-intelligence chief yesterday told a national commission investigating the September 11 attacks that the president did not take the threat of terrorism seriously enough.

It was also claimed that the CIA chief admitted more could have been done to foil the strikes.

Richard Clarke said the Clinton administration was deeply involved in tracking Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida organisation but that the Bush administration, which took office in January 2001, did not consider the issue urgent.

"The Bush administration in the first eight months considered terrorism an important issue, but not an urgent issue," said Mr Clarke, who has shaken Washington this week with a book directly criticising Mr Bush for part of the September 11, 2001, failure.

Mr Clarke also told the commission Mr Bush had "greatly undermined the war on terrorism" after the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon by invading Iraq.

On the second of two dramatic days of open testimony, commissioner Tim Roemer, a former Democratic congressman, created a stir when he asked Mr Clarke about a letter he wrote to Mr Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, one week before the 9/11 attacks.

"You urge policymakers to imagine a day after hundreds of Americans lay dead at home and abroad after a terrorist attack and ask themselves what else they could have done. You write this on September 4, seven days before September 11."

Mr Clarke simply replied, "Yes".

The commission of five Republicans and five Democrats is due to report in late July at the height of the presidential campaign. Its findings could affect Mr Bush's re-election hopes.

Some Republicans on the commission said Mr Clarke had damaged his own credibility by sensationalising his charges against Mr Bush for personal gain. The White House has also mounted sustained attacks on his motives, saying he was a closet supporter of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. Mr Clarke vigorously denied this.

In earlier testimony yesterday, CIA Director George Tenet admitted more could have been done to foil the 9/11 attacks. But he dismissed criticism his agency was too cautious to meet the challenge.

Asked repeatedly why the agency failed to thwart the attacks, Mr Tenet said: "We didn't integrate all the data we had properly, and probably we had a lot of data that we didn't know about that if everybody had known about maybe we would have had a chance."