More on Rand Beers in the FReeppost *here*. And here's another interesting article about him:
Former security advisor says Bush failing to counter terror threat
Mon Jun 16, 2:36 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A top White House anti-terrorism advisor who quit five days before the start of the Iraq (news - web sites) war has accused President George W. Bush (news - web sites) of not doing enough in the fight against terrorism.
"The administration wasn't matching its deeds to its words in the war on terrorism," Rand Beers, a former special assistant to the president, told the Washington Post in an interview published Monday.
After working at the National Security Council for 35 years, under presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Bill Clinton, Beers, 60, had been the main counter-terrorism advisor from August until his resignation in March.
He has since joined the presidential campaign of Democratic Senator John Kerry.
Beers said the Bush administration was "making us less secure, not more secure."
The government had concentrated on being offensive against terrorists without properly laying out the means to be defensive and prevent a repeat of the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001, he told the Post.
US-led forces have yet to locate conclusive evidence backing Bush's central case for war: that Saddam possessed chemical and biological weapons, pursued nuclear arms, and might one day have armed terrorists.
Congress is also looking into US intelligence claims leading up to the war.
But Bush on Monday rebuffed mounting criticism of his case for war with Iraq and his efforts to prevent future terrorists attacks.
"Saddam Hussein was a threat to America and the free world in '91, in '98, in 2003. He continually ignored the demands of the free world, so the United States and friends and allies acted," Bush said in a speech in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
"This nation acted to a threat from the dictator of Iraq. Now there are some who would like to rewrite history; revisionist historians is what I like to call them," the president said.
Beers also said that the war in Afghanistan (news - web sites) was a job abandoned at the halfway point and not enough military resources have been put into the country.
"Terrorists move around the country with ease. We don't even know what is going on. Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) could be anywhere in Afghanistan," Beers was quoted as saying.
He added that not enough pressure had been put on Saudi Arabia to deal with its terrorism problems.
The Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) (CIA (news - web sites)) is doing a good job hunting al-Qaeda chiefs abroad but the new Department of Homeland Security, responsible for defending the United States, was underfunded, Beers said.
Explaining his job at the White House, Beers said that each day he had to sift through and evaluate between 500 and 1,000 indications of terrorist threats.
Major security breach right there. He ought to have all his clearances yanked and never get them back.
-ccm