Draining war piles up danger for US, says counter-terror expert

By ANDREW BUNCOMBE

WASHINGTON - America is "massively vulnerable" to another big terrorist attack because of President George W. Bush's insistence on diverting much needed resources from internal security to the war in Iraq, according to Richard Clarke, the former White House counter-terrorism chief.

He said the war in Iraq had taken away focus and financing not only from the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda supporters but from homeland security programmes inside the US.

"America is massively vulnerable, massively vulnerable," Clarke said. "Its chemical plants are vulnerable, its train systems are all vulnerable.

"We are a target-rich environment. There are lots of targets that could be made harder to attack but we are not doing that."

Clarke said the invasion of Iraq - which he believes presented no threat to the US - had created three serious security problems.

Insufficient aid was being given to countries such as Yemen and Pakistan, where there were known to be terrorists, to help them strengthen security measures.

Troops and resources had been moved from the hunt for bin Laden in Afghanistan to help the troops in Iraq.

Finally, the billions of dollars spent in Iraq have used up money that could have been spent on boosting internal security.

"Because the bills for going into Iraq are so high ... the resources are not available for the homeland security missions that we need to reduce our vulnerability," Clarke said.

"The department has a long list of things they want to do - to secure trains for example, to prevent another Madrid happening. To secure chemical plants, to train first responders. They are massively under-funded."

Clarke served Reagan, Bush and Clinton as well as the current President Bush, and his accusations are supported by other former, high-ranking government officials.

Earlier this year, Flynt Leverett, formerly Bush's senior director for Middle Eastern Affairs on the National Security Council, told the Democracy Now! radio station: "Clarke has laid out a very serious and substantive critique of the way the Administration has conducted the war on terror since the September 11 attacks.

"It's hard to get around the fact that critical resources were taken away from the Afghan theatre before we had finished the job against bin Laden."

Earlier this year Clarke testified before the panel investigating the circumstances surrounding the attacks of September 11.

He claimed his warnings about al Qaeda had been ignored by the Bush Administration. The panel is due to issue its report within weeks.

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