Bush 'bomber' disarray

Two days after the sensational exposure of a plot to unleash a radiation bomb on a US city, questions about the case threatened a backlash against Washington’s "war on terror."

White House officials have objected bitterly to ominous warnings from John Ashcroft, the attorney general, that suspect Jose Padilla was poised to inflict "mass death and injury", it was reported yesterday.

The row came as President George Bush launched a push for his new multi-billion Department of Homeland Security - and against renewed warnings of al-Qaeda-inspired terror from Germany to Gibraltar.

The UK announced its own plans yesterday for a rapid reaction force to confront any terror attack, a 6,000-strong "home guard" drawn from the Territorial Army.

US officials suggested al-Qaeda might stir war in Kashmir. German security agents suggested the terror organisation could use bomb-laden model aeroplanes to down passenger aircraft.

It followed an alleged threat of suicide attacks on British warships by three Saudi Arabian men arrested in Morocco.

In Switzerland yesterday, Mr Ashcroft insisted that while Osama bin Laden has dropped out of sight, the terror threat was very much alive. "We don’t believe al-Qaeda maintained camps in which thousands were trained, only that they would send 19 or 20 to the US," he said, referring to the suicide hijackers of 11 September.

But the case of Jose Padilla, the US citizen and former Chicago gang member dubbed an al-Qaeda "operative" in a plot to unleash a "dirty bomb", brought Mr Ashcroft’s position into a harsh spotlight.

Revealing Padilla’s arrest with dramatic fanfare this week, Mr Ashcroft said he was at the centre of "an unfolding terrorist plot" to cause "mass death and injury" in the US.

It was claimed the "dirty bomb" would use conventional explosives wrapped in radioactive materials to blast radiation over a wide area.

But the Bush administration is already sensitive to criticism that it has issued too many terror warnings from attacks on the Brooklyn Bridge to plots to poison water supplies.

Officials were dispatched to characterise Padilla’s crime as closer to "loose talk". While there are claims of meetings with senior al-Qaeda figures, the strongest evidence so far may be that he searched for bomb-making tips on the internet.

In a blistering editorial yesterday, the New York Times newspaper said the only case Padilla had to answer appeared to be Mr Bush’s claim he was a "bad guy".

Senior Republicans have joined their voices to concern that Mr Ashcroft, who oversees the FBI, is threatening to trample on civil liberties with new surveillance measures.

Padilla’s own lawyer went to court yesterday to denounce his detention in a military prison "without time limit or the right to counsel".

Democrats have begun to break the unified front behind Mr Bush since the destruction of the World Trade Centre.

Congress is poised to consider Mr Bush’s plans for his new Homeland Security Department, with nearly 200,000 employees and a 20 billion annual budget. The White House is trying to prevent political horse-trading pulling its proposals to pieces.

But senior Democrats suggested the Bush administration had tried to deflect attention from intelligence failures before 11 September by revealing the "dirty bomb" case, a month after Padilla’s arrest in May.

The Senate majority leader, Tom Daschle, speculated there was a "rush to bring it before the news media" against mounting criticism of US intelligence agencies.

In Britain, the Ministry of Defence yesterday signalled a major rethink over the role of the Territorial Army as it announced plans for a rapid reaction force to aid the police and civil authorities in a terrorist attack.

Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, said the 6,000-strong reserve force would have an "important role" in meeting the challenges posed by the events of 11 September.