Berger, Clarke Spin for Kerry on Iraq

Former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger and former White House terrorism czar Richard Clarke are set to hit the spin cycle this weekend on behalf of Sen. John Kerry.

As the Bush White House commemorates the first anniversary of the Iraq war, the two former Clinton officials are coming out of the woodwork to trash Operation Iraqi Freedom as an unnecessary distraction to the war on terror.

"How we conducted the war in Iraq - hurried, alone, unprepared for the day after - has made the terrorism problem more difficult," Berger told a Kerry campaign briefing on Friday.

Clarke, who recently proclaimed that "fighting Iraq had little to do with fighting the war on terrorism, until we made it [so]," is set to appear on "60 Minutes" this Sunday.

He's expected to address charges that the Clinton administration failed to act when the CIA pinpointed Osama bin Laden's location on several occasions before the 9/11 attacks.

Democratic spinmeister Paul Begala, who announced Clarke's "60 Minutes" spot during a radio interview Friday morning, signaled the public relations blitzkrieg on terrorism, daring Republicans:

"Ask the nonpartisan national security experts who worked in both administrations, who was tougher on bin Laden, who was aware of the problem, who was going after bin Laden."

In further evidence that the Clinton and Kerry teams were joining forces on foreign policy, Norway's Socialist leadership met with Sen. Hillary Clinton and other members of her political team in what the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten described as a bid to "link up with the Democrats in the US."

"The goal is to be prepared with common strategies if a majority of them on both sides of the Atlantic come back to power," the paper explained.

Espen Barth Eide, who led the Norwegian delegation in Washington, D.C., said she hoped the meeting would help bring about "political globalization."

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