Ex-adviser says Bush staff ignored warnings on terror

Clarke said Rice, who previously worked for Bush's father, appeared not to recognize post-Cold War security issues and effectively demoted him within the National Security Council. He said Rice has a close relationship with Bush, which "should have given her some maneuver room, some margin for shaping the agenda."

Clarke, expected to testify tomorrow before a federal panel investigating the attacks, recounted his meeting with Rice as support for his contention that the Bush administration failed to recognize the risk of an attack by Al Qaeda in the months leading to Sept. 11, 2001. Clarke retired in March 2003 after three decades in the US government.

He contended Bush has done a "terrible job" fighting terrorism. He said that "the critique of him as a dumb, lazy, rich kid was somewhat off the mark," but that Bush looks for "the simple solution, the bumper-sticker description of the problem." The Associated Press obtained a copy of Clarke's book before its publication today.

Clarke said that within one week of the Bush inauguration, he "urgently" sought a meeting of senior Cabinet leaders to discuss "the imminent Al Qaeda threat." Months later, in April, Clarke met with deputy secretaries. During that meeting, he wrote, Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz told Clarke, "You give bin Laden too much credit," and he said Wolfowitz sought to steer the discussion toward Iraq.

The White House responded that it kept Clarke on its staff after the election because of its concerns over Al Qaeda. "He makes the charge that we were not focused enough on efforts to root out terrorism," White House spokesman Dan Bartlett said yesterday. "That's just categorically false."

Bartlett said Clarke's memo to Rice in January 2001 discussed recommendations to improve security at US sites overseas, not in the United States. "Each one of these, while important, wouldn't have impacted 9/11," Bartlett said.

Clarke harshly criticizes Bush personally in his book, saying his decision to invade Iraq generated broad anti-American sentiment among Arabs. He recounts that Bush asked him directly almost immediately after the Sept. 11 terror attacks to find whether Iraq was involved.