New York ? Al Gore delivered a fiery denunciation Wednesday of the Bush administration’s “twisted values and atrocious policies” and demanded the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and CIA director George Tenet.

Raising his voice in a speech at New York University, Gore said: “How dare they subject us to such dishonor and disgrace! How dare they drag the good name of the United States of America through the mud of Saddam Hussein’s torture prison!”

The Democratic former vice president said the situation in Iraq was spinning out of control.

“I am calling today for Republicans as well as Democrats to join me in asking for the immediate resignations of those immediately below George Bush and Dick Cheney, who are most responsible for creating the catastrophe we are facing in Iraq,” Gore said, drawing strong applause from the partisan crowd.

“Donald Rumsfeld ought to resign immediately!” Gore bellowed. “Our nation is at risk every single day Rumsfeld remains as secretary of defense. We need someone with good judgment and common sense.”

Rice “ought to resign immediately. She has badly mishandled the coordination of national security policy. This is a disaster for our country,” he said.

The former presidential candidate was gentler on Tenet, a Clinton administration appointee, describing him as a friend and “honorable man” who should still leave his position for intelligence failures.

The Republican National Committee shot back at Gore, pointing out that while he was vice president, terrorists attacked U.S. embassies in Africa, bombed the USS Cole and carried out the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

“Al Gore’s attacks on the president today demonstrate that he either does not understand the threat of global terror or he has amnesia,” RNC spokesman Jim Dyke said in a statement.

The speech was one of several Gore appearances sponsored since August by MoveOn.org. The liberal interest group also has a television and radio ad calling for Bush to fire Rumsfeld.

Gore, who served in Vietnam, predicted greater problems for America’s involvement in Iraq. “The worst still lies ahead,” he said.