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Albright Criticizes Bush Foreign Policy

Fri Feb 1, 9:23 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on Friday criticized the Bush administration's foreign policy and took aim at the president's labeling of Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an "axis of evil."

Albright also questioned the administration's public relations approach to the detainees from Afghanistan being held at a U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and said the U.S. approach to the issue had been damaging diplomatically.

In an interview with NBC's "Today" show, Albright said President Bush made a "big mistake" lumping together Iran, Iraq and North Korea in his State of the Union address.

In his speech on Tuesday night, Bush used harsh language to describe Iran, Iraq and North Korea, saying they were committed to developing weapons of mass destruction and must be stopped.

"First of all they (Iran, Iraq and North Korea) are very different from each other," said Albright, who was Secretary of State in the Clinton administration.

In the case of Iraq, Albright said the United States had been trying to contain President Saddam Hussein since 1991 and strong action was necessary. However, the situation with Iran was more complicated and the United States needed Tehran's help in dealing with Afghanistan.

Looking at North Korea, Albright said it was a mistake to walk away from that communist state. The United States has attempted to hold talks with North Korea about its weapons program but that process has gone nowhere.

"When we left office, we left the potential of a verifiable agreement to stop the export of missile technology abroad on the table. I think it's a mistake to walk away from that. We know that North Korea is dangerous but lumping those three countries together is dangerous," she said.

The United States has come under fire from human rights groups and several Western governments for its treatment of detainees in Guantanamo Bay, who are being held in open-air cells at a U.S. naval base there.

Albright said instead of showing the world conditions at the Cuban prison, the United States had become involved in an "arcane" discussion about why it would not give its captives prisoner of war status, which grants certain rights.

She suggested releasing a video to show the conditions under which the detainees were being held, which visitors to the prison had said were adequate.

"It would help us not only with the problem in Pakistan but also generally where the international community thinks we have lost our minds," said Albright, referring to the kidnapping of an American journalist in Pakistan whose captors have demanded the release of prisoners being held in Guantanamo Bay.