Clarke on Point

Found a link to this AP story over on Buzzflash. Hadn't seen it yet.

Former White House terrorism czar Richard Clarke called the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib a "war crime" and again blasted the Bush administration for actions that he said are intensifying the threat of terrorism.

"We have a major problem and we have not improved it over the last three years," Clarke said Thursday at the annual conference of the American Civil Liberties Union. "It, in fact, has gotten worse."

An unlikely medley of speakers, including former Republican congressman Bob Barr and FBI whistleblower Coleen Rowley, joined Clarke to talk about the increasing tension between civil liberties and national security. Later Thursday, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, a Republican, debated former Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean on the same issue.

Clarke leveled the worst of his volleys against the Bush administration for its handling of terrorism, which he said had helped al-Qaida mutate into an uncontrollable entity "that no longer need Osama bin Laden to direct it," he said.