Photo by: Kari Varner

Richard Clarke, former National Security Council chief counter-terrorism adviser, predicted that we may be fighting Al-Qaeda terror centers around the world for 10 or 15 more years in a speech at the Newman Center on Thursday.

Clarke’s speech, about fighting terrorism in the United States and abroad, drew a full house to the Gates Concert Hall in the Newman Center.

The speech was the first of three lectures in DU’s 2010-2011 Bridges to the Future series, which is themed 9/11: Ten Years After.

Despite his prediction of the war on terror lasting another decade or more, Clarke was confident that U.S. involvement in combating terror around the world would eventually end.

“Eventually this will all die out,” he said.

Clarke acknowledged that the war on terror is painful, but spoke for its necessity.

“It’s not an option for us simply to walk away,” he said. “I think a lot more Americans would die if we weren’t doing it.”

He also spoke about increasing numbers of American citizens converting to Al-Qaeda and fundamentalist Islamic terror movements.

“They [Al-Qaeda] are targeting the United States frequently using Americans,” he said.

Clarke called those such as the Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, and the Fort Hood gunman, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, “lone wolves.”

“There is a steady beat of Americans being converted,” said Clarke. “Lone wolves are trying to stage attacks in the United States.”

Clarke said the United States has been successful in its efforts to drive Al-Qaeda out of Afghanistan, and that there may be only 100-150 Al-Qaeda members left in the country.

This success, though, has driven terrorists to other countries such as Yemen, Somalia and Saudi Arabia. The organization has dispersed from one central location to many.

They are moving to the “crevices” and “ungoverned areas” of these countries, he said.

Clarke also spoke on the the invasion of Iraq after Sept. 11, which he saw as a mistake. He criticized the move as drastic and ill-conceived.

“We shouldn’t jump off the deep end again and invade another country,” he said. “We invaded Iraq as though that had something to do with Sept. 11. And it didn’t. We know that now. Some of us knew it then.”

Clarke chaired the Counter-terrorism Security Group and sat on the National Security Council under President George H.W. Bush.

He served as National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-terrorism under President Bill Clinton, continuing in this position under President George W. Bush until 2003.

He currently chairs the security risk management firm Good Harbor Consulting.