March 23 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush's secretary of state and his Democratic predecessor defended their respective administrations' anti-terrorism policies, saying they tried to stop Osama bin Laden and were constrained by public opinion and diplomatic realities before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Supporters of Bush, a Republican, and former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, have pointed fingers at each other following comments by a former counter-terrorism adviser who said Bush didn't take al-Qaeda's threat seriously.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, testifying before an independent commission studying Sept. 11, disputed that account. He said Bush entered office determined to act more forcefully, not less, than Clinton.

Bush ``from the start, by word and deed, made clear his interest and his intense desire to protect the nation from terrorism,'' Powell said. ``As he said in early spring, 'I'm tired of swatting flies.' He wanted a thorough, comprehensive diplomatic, military, intelligence, law enforcement and financial strategy to go after al-Qaeda.''

Powell said the Bush administration had plans to eradicate al-Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks shocked the U.S. ``We wanted the new policy to go beyond tit for tat retaliation,'' Powell said.

By contrast, he suggested the prior Clinton administration had responded weakly to terror attacks on U.S. targets overseas, ``launching cruise missiles at already warned targets.''

Top Priority

Earlier, the 10-member independent commission heard from former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who said that countering terrorism ``was a top priority for President Clinton.'' She also questioned the Bush administration's anti- terrorism tactics.

``We were not attacked on Sept. 11 by a noun, terrorism,'' Albright said. ``If we pursue goals that are unnecessarily broad, we will stretch ourselves to the breaking point and become more vulnerable, not less,'' Albright said, without mentioning the war in Iraq.

In written remarks that she didn't read aloud, Albright said the Bush administration's decision to detain hundreds of people in Guantanamo, Cuba, may be helping the al-Qaeda network recruit new members. ``It is possible and perhaps probable that anger over these detentions has helped (Osama) bin Laden succeed in recruiting more new operatives,'' she testified.

Pursuing Bin Laden

The administration was determined to kill bin Laden after the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Albright said.

``We did not, after all, launch cruise missiles for the purpose of serving legal papers,'' she said. ``We wanted to put bin Laden out of business permanently.

Commission member Slade Gorton, a former Republican senator from Washington, told Albright that throughout the Clinton administration ``a rational al-Qaeda could determine that terrorism was essentially cost-free'' because of the weakness of U.S. response.

Albright said she doesn't believe that is the case. ``Well then, we certainly disagree,'' Gorton responded.

Clarke, a top counter-terrorism adviser to both Clinton and Bush, touched off a political firestorm with a new book and television interviews in which he questioned why the Bush administration focused on overthrowing Saddam Hussein in Iraq without evidence that he was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Urgent Briefings

Clarke and others who served under Clinton say they gave Bush officials urgent intelligence briefings after the 2000 election stressing that Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda posed the greatest security risk to the U.S.

The White House has disputed Clarke's accusations. ``This is more about politics and book promotions than about policy,'' White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters yesterday.

The commission is scheduled to hear from Clarke tomorrow. Until then, his allegations are ``the elephant in the room,'' former Illinois Governor James Thompson said during today's proceedings.

Powell said the Bush administration's strategy, to attack the terrorist group's high command, ``all came together'' just one week before the assault that destroyed the World Trade Center in New York City and damaged the Pentagon in Washington.

Ready to Attack

He said even an attack on the terrorist group might not have stopped the Sept. 11 attackers. ``Those who were perpetrators of 9-11 already had their instructions, had their plans in place,'' he said.

Powell also said the Clinton administration didn't turn over a comprehensive plan to fight terrorism. ``We were given a good briefing,'' he said.

The commission's staff, in a report to the panel, said the Clinton and Bush administrations had little success fighting terror with diplomacy before Sept. 11.

Starting in 1996, Clinton, a Democrat, and Bush, his Republican successor, tried to get bin Laden expelled from Afghanistan, where his al Qaeda organization was protected by the Taliban government. These attempts to pressure Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Sudan achieved little, the report said.

In a second report, the staff said the Bush administration did not begin to develop military plans against al-Qaeda before Sept. 11, 2001. The report also said that Defense Department officials agree that neither Congress nor the American public would have supported large-scale military operations in Afghanistan before ``the shock of 9/11.''

Kean `Disappointed'

Former New Jersey Governor Thomas Kean, the commission chairman, said the panel is ``disappointed'' that Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser, declined an invitation to appear at the public hearings. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was designated by the administration to take her place, Kean said.

Rice ``has been a very cooperative witness'' at private meetings with the commission, Kean said.

Rice wrote in the Washington Post Monday that the administration planned on attacking al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership with a goal of compelling the Taliban to stop giving sanctuary to terrorists.

Eliminating al-Qaeda was the administration's first major foreign policy goal, she wrote.

Continuing Probe

This week's session marks the eighth public hearing for the commission, formally the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.

Central Intelligence Agency Director George Tenet and Clinton administration National Security Affairs Assistant Samuel Berger are scheduled to testify Wednesday.

The hearings center on U.S. counter-terrorism policy between August 1998, when U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed, and Sept. 11, 2001, when the World Trade Center and Pentagon were attacked by terrorists who commandeered commercial jetliners.

Bush has agreed to meet privately with commission members. Clinton has also agreed to appear before the commission.

The commission must complete its work by July 26, according to its congressional mandate which was amended in February to extend the deadline from May 27.

To contact the reporter on this story: Laurence Arnold in Washington at larnold4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 23, 2004 14:31 EST