As the President's neglected terrorism adviser, it was Clarke's moment. He had badgered the Bush Administration for almost a year to take al-Qaeda seriously. Rice, he claimed, had not even heard of al-Qaeda when she joined the White House. Now, his dire predictions coming true, the National Security Adviser had asked Clarke to run the crisis cabinet meeting responding to the attacks. As Clarke peppered senior officials with demands, from scrambling fighters, to closing America's borders, his phone line to the White House bunker kept dropping out.

The scene in the bunker was almost farcical. The Vice-President's wife, Lynne, had turned down the volume on Clarke's video-conference so she could hear CNN. Mrs Cheney, who Clarke describes as a right-wing ideologue "like her husband", was offering advice and opinions while the Vice-President talked with President Bush, who had just left a primary school in Florida. Told of the attacks in New York, Bush had spent seven minutes listening to a story about a pet goat. Two hijacked aircraft were flying towards Washington. Cheney kept hanging up his line to Clarke. With a Tom Clancy-like pace and the insider's perspective of a four-time presidential adviser, Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror is a scathing critique of the Bush Administration.

A Republican voter and lifelong public servant, Clarke argues the Bush Administration ignored his warnings that al-Qaeda was an imminent threat. After September 11 it immediately looked for excuses to invade Iraq, he says, even though it was clear Saddam Hussein had nothing to do with it. From his vantage of a White House adviser, Clarke charts Islamic terrorism towards the US from the end of the Cold War to Iraq.

Against All Enemies does not pretend to be a comprehensive account but offers a series of behind-the-scenes accounts of presidents wrestling with adversaries they can't find and don't understand. It also contains the first close-up comparison of the Clinton and Bush presidencies and is laced with personal anecdotes loved by political fans. George Bush is not dumb or lazy, Clarke says, but relies on a small group of advisers and looks for simple solutions, known in the US as the "bumper sticker" response. President Bill Clinton would examine problems from every angle. And when he had exhausted the White House's expertise, he would look elsewhere. Bush and his inner circle are unconcerned by nuance. They already know the answers, Clarke says. The night after September 11 Clarke found the President wandering around the White House Situation Room looking like he wanted something to do. He pulled Clarke and several officials aside and ordered them to investigate any links with Saddam.

Clarke, who had been unsuccessfully trying to brief the President all year on al-Qaeda, was cut off when he tried to explain that Osama bin Laden was responsible. When the intelligence agencies later unanimously backed him up, Clarke says he got a clear response from the President's deputy national security adviser: "Wrong answer." Clarke prides himself on his objectivity - he headed off attempts in the Clinton Administration to intervene in the Rwandan genocide because he did not believe US interests were at stake. After 30 years in government he retired last year, believing the Administration's decision to invade Iraq was the best thing it could do to boost al-Qaeda recruiting. He set about writing this book, which essentially argues that the Bush Administration has botched the war on terrorism.

When Against All Enemies was published in the US last month the White House launched a full media attack on his motivation, integrity and character. He was a disgruntled job seeker and a political opportunist who failed to prevent several terrorist attacks on US targets, it said. Rumours about his personal life were spread to journalists. Clarke expected the criticism and responded with a public relations skill apparently absorbed through many years of White House experience. Under oath, he vowed not to accept a position in a future Democratic Administration, pledged to donate some of the book's profits to widows and orphans of the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars and brandished a hand-written note from the President praising his service. The attacks soon died out. He now co-teaches a subject at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In a recent class he posed the question: how should the US respond to a terrorist attack on a US military base by Iran and react to the inevitable counter-move. The class eventually had the US invading Tehran with five divisions. Clarke did not offer an answer, having neatly illustrated his point. Policy-makers need to think five steps ahead, not one.

Aaron Patrick is a masters student at Harvard University and a former New York correspondent for The Australian Financial Review.

