Richard Clarke Denies Playing Election-Year Politics

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. counter-terrorism expert Richard Clarke on Tuesday rejected White House charges that he is playing election-year politics by attacking President Bush’s record on fighting al Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

A day after a furious White House attempt to discredit him as a disgruntled former employee who has ties to the presidential campaign of Democrat John Kerry, Clarke hit the television airwaves to fight back.

"I’m not doing this because I’m disgruntled, I’m doing this because I think the American people need to know the truth," Clarke told ABC’s "Good Morning America."

He denied he had timed the release of his book, which accuses Bush of concentrating too much on Iraq and not enough on al Qaeda, to have political impact, saying it was held up by the administration for a security check.

On Capitol Hill, Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota took to the Senate floor to accuse the White House of "abuses of power."

He equated the effort to discredit Clarke to a similar move against former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill over a tell-all book in January and the leaking of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame when her husband, former diplomat Joseph Wilson, accused Bush of hyping pre-war intelligence on Iraq.

"I think the people around the president crossed into dangerous territory. We are seeing abuses of power that cannot be tolerated. The president needs to put a stop to it right now. We need to get to the truth and the president needs to help us do that," Daschle said.

EXPLOSIVE CHARGE

Clarke’s explosive main charge in the book, "Against All Enemies," is that Bush ignored the threat of al Qaeda for months and did too little to stop the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It came as the commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks began hearing public testimony on Capitol Hill.

The White House has hit back by saying Clarke was the top counter-terrorism official for eight years before Bush took office and failed to prevent a number of al Qaeda attacks from taking place, and that he is disgruntled because all his ideas were not followed and that he is a grand-standing critic.

While Clarke said he believes the American people "this year especially" need to know his charges, he said he did not intend that his book, "Against All Enemies," appear in the midst of the presidential campaign.

He accused the White House of sitting on his book for three months for a security review.

"The book could have been out in December, which is what I wanted...," Clarke said. "I’m not trying to put it in the middle of the election. They put it in the middle of the election."

Clarke’s successor as the top counter-terrorism official at the White House, Wayne Downing, told NBC’s "Today" show that "there may be some ego issues here because I know the operating style of the White House changed a lot when the Bush administration came in and a lot of Dick’s direct access to the president just didn’t occur any more."

"I can’t say it is only political but this being an election year raises the stakes on that particular issue," Downing said.

Democrats are seeking to use the Clarke book to undercut Bush’s argument, central to his re-election campaign, that he has been tough on terrorism. Bush and Kerry are running neck and neck in the polls.

White House communications director Dan Bartlett said the White House felt that clearly Clarke was trying to help Kerry’s campaign, particularly since he is close friends with Kerry foreign policy advisor Rand Beers.

"Look, it’s the political season. We are in the middle of a presidential campaign and this is what you expect during a campaign," Bartlett told Fox News.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Clarke’s book went through a routine security review by the National Security Council and that it was not delayed.