US: The former counter-terrorism co-ordinator in the White House has harshly criticised President Bush for doing "a terrible job on the war against terrorism".
Mr Richard Clarke, who retired last year, accused the president and his cabinet of failing to recognise the al-Qaeda threat before the September 11th attacks on the US and of manipulating intelligence to justify the war with Iraq.
Mr Clarke made his accusations on a CBS 60 Minutes television broadcast last night in advance of the publication today of his book Against All Enemies, which is about the Bush administration intelligence failures and its obsession with finding a reason to attack Iraq.
"They were talking about Iraq on 9/11," he said. "They were talking about it on 9/12. [Defence Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld was saying we needed to bomb Iraq ... We all said, 'but no, no, al-Qaeda is in Afghanistan,' and Rumsfeld said, 'There aren't any good targets in Afghanistan and there are lots of good targets in Iraq."
Almost immediately after the attacks, Mr Clarke said President Bush asked him directly to find whether Iraq was involved.
"Now he never said, 'Make it up.' But the entire conversation left me in absolutely no doubt that George Bush wanted me to come back with a report that said, 'Iraq did this,'" he said.
Mr Clarke said he told the president that US intelligence agencies had never found a connection between Iraq and al-Qaeda. "He came back at me and said, 'Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there's a connection,' and in a very intimidating way."
National Security Council official Stephen Hadley told CBS: "We cannot find evidence that this conversation between Mr Clarke and the president ever occurred." However, the broadcast network said it found two people who recounted the incident independently.
In January, the then-Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill said that Mr Bush was preoccupied by Iraq from the first days he took office.
Mr Bush "ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11. Maybe. We'll never know," said Mr Clarke, a career official of 30 year years.
"It was as though they were preserved in amber from when they left office eight years earlier," he said of the officials who also served the first President Bush.
"I'm sure I'll be criticised for lots of things, and I'm sure they'll launch their dogs on me," he said. "But frankly I find it outrageous that the president is running for re-election on the grounds that he's done such great things about terrorism. He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months, when maybe we could have done something."