WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. counterterrorism official Richard Clarke told the commission probing the Sept. 11 attacks on Wednesday that President Bush (news - web sites) did not take the terrorism threat seriously enough, and the head of the CIA (news - web sites) admitted more could have been done to foil the strikes.
Clarke, who served the last four U.S. presidents, said the Clinton administration was deeply involved in tracking Osama bin Laden (news - web sites)'s al Qaeda organization but that the Bush administration, which took office in January 2001, did not consider the issue urgent.
"I believe the Bush administration in the first eight months considered terrorism an important issue, but not an urgent issue," said Clarke, who has shaken Washington this week with a book directly criticizing Bush for part of the Sept. 11, 2001, failure.
Clarke told the national commission Bush had "greatly undermined the war on terrorism" after the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites) by invading Iraq (news - web sites) last year.
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