Inside view casts new shadow over Bush re-election hopes

[T_i_B]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=504395

By charging that Mr Bush and his senior advisers mistakenly neglected al-Qa'ida in the spring and summer of 2001 to focus on Iraq, Mr Clarke has not only re-ignited the debate over whether the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington could have bene prevented. In Against All Enemies, he challenges the central theme of the President's re-election campaign, Mr Bush's resolve and competence in dealing with terrorism.

True, there were several insider accounts of Bill Clinton's White House. But most, like All Too Human by George Stephanopoulos, his former close adviser, had a somewhat wistful quality, depicting Mr Clinton as a potentially great President diminished by failings of the flesh.

Memoirs of this Bush White House have taken an exactly opposite tack. Their broad thrust is that the moralistic, super efficient fasade of this administration hides a ruthless, politically motivated and sometimes bumbling reality.

Mr Clarke moreover may have been a sharp elbowed and ambitious bureaucratic operator. But he was one of the most experienced US counter-terrorism specialists and, contrary to the assertion of vice President Dick Cheney, very much 'in the loop.' His judgement was deeply respected by both Republican and Democratic administrations alike. Top Bush officials have attempted to present him as a disgruntled Democrat, angry at being passed over for a senior post in the new Homeland Security department after leaving the White House. Politically however he is an independent with Republican leanings, who cannot be accused of partisanship.