No wonder Richard A. Clarke’s new insider book about the war on terrorism has created a political sensation. It hit the bookstores just as a special presidential commission opened public hearings on the Sept. 11 attacks.

And no wonder that the Bush administration promptly accused this counter-terrorism coordinator for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush of bias, ignorance, a calculated assist to John Kerry’s presidential campaign and a scheme to get himself a job in a Kerry White House.

Interviewers and talk shows focused on Mr. Clarke’s charge that the Iraq war had diverted attention and resources from the campaign in Afghanistan to destroy the Taliban and Osama bin Laden’s terrorist network as the primary enemy. The main emphasis was on an incident that Mr. Clarke recounted in the White House Situation room on Sept. 12, the day after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He wrote that the president was wandering around alone and looked as if wanted something to do. “He grabbed a few of us and closed the door to the conference room. ‘Look,’ he told us, ‘I know you have a lot to do and all … but I want you, as soon as you can, to go back over everything, everything. See if Saddam did this. See if he’s linked in any way …” Mr. Clarke said he was taken aback and said, “But, Mr. president, al-Qaida did this.” He said the president replied, “I know, I know, but … see if Saddam was involved. Just look. I want to know any shred …” When Mr. Clarke promised to look again but noted that several efforts to detect state sponsorship of al-Qaida had failed to turn up any real linkage, he said Mr. Bush repeated testily, “Look into Iraq, Saddam,” and left the room.

The White House says the president can recall no such conversation, but others in the room have confirmed the Clarke account. Earlier histories of those first days after 9/11 showed a similar preoccupation with Iraq. An inside report by the Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, told of immediate pressure by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz for an early strike against Iraq as well as al-Qaida. Mr. Wolfowitz often contended that al-Qaida couldn’t have carried out the attacks without state sponsorship.

In those early days of the American response to 9/11, several accounts make clear that the president eventually overrode advice for immediate action against Iraq and ordered that al-Qaida must come first.

Mr. Clarke’s book and subsequent interviews show that he had an early obsession with al-Qaida in both administrations, often going beyond the two presidents in his sense of urgency and in his proposals for military action.

Several accounts also demonstrate Mr. Bush’s obsession with Saddam Hussein. Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill has told of a strange meeting in the early days of the Bush administration. In an obviously staged action, Mr. Bush asked his national security advisor Condoleezza Rice what was on the agenda. She and Mr. Rumsfeld launched into a lengthy analysis of how Saddam Hussein’s overthrow would be the key to peace in the whole region.

The Bush administration never quite charged that Saddam Hussein was linked to al-Qaida, but its constant hints persuaded many Americans that he was behind the Sept. 11 attacks. Without that perceived link, it would have been harder to persuade Americans to support the invasion of Iraq.

So Mr. Clarke’s book, beyond giving a fresh inside look at the war on terror, has raised serious questions about President Bush’s decision to wage a war that is now going into its second year and has increasingly become an issue in this year’s presidential campaign.