In this series, Newsweek describes the path of 9/11, as it happened 20 years ago, day after day.
After President Bush extended his summer vacation in Crawford, Texas, the head of the cabinet September 4 For the first time, the Bush administration discussed al Qaeda and terrorism policies.
President and Vice President, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and his deputy Steve Hadley, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Secretary of Treasury Paul O’Neill, and Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dick Myers, the vice chair of the conference (and future chair), and CIA Director George Tenet. Richard Clarke, a White House counter-terrorism staff member, also attended the meeting.
On the day of the meeting, Clark sent Rice a personal note criticizing current and past anti-terrorism efforts.He wrote that the “real question” before the principal was, “Are we taking the threat of Al Qaeda seriously?…What’s the big deal about Al Qaeda?” He went on to say, “Decision makers should imagine that they are One day in the future…Hundreds of Americans will die in several countries, including the United States. What do those policymakers want them to do sooner? A day in the future may happen at any time.” He argued that because the United States did not In retaliation for the attack on the aircraft carrier USS Cole in Yemen last October, Al Qaeda and Taliban Lessons learned, they can kill Americans without paying any price.He blames Pentagon Because there is nothing worth fighting in Afghanistan. He said the CIA will insist that its priorities are the most important, and describe its bureaucracy as “good at passive aggressive behavior.”
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Rice later told the 9/11 committee that she thought Clark’s memo was a good warning, but also felt that after nine years as a staff member of the National Security Council, he was often frustrated by failing to persuade the principal to formulate the agenda he wanted. . Or persuade these institutions to adopt his views.
The meeting was ultimately dominated by an unresolved issue, namely when the Predator reconnaissance drone will fly over Afghanistan again and whether the drone will be equipped with weapons. The discussion focused on whether the White House, the Central Intelligence Agency, or the Pentagon had the authority to approve the firing. Treasury Secretary O’Neill was disturbed by the involvement of civilians and warned of the impact of trying to kill a person: it constitutes an assassination and has been banned since 2017. Ford administrative.
At the end of the extended meeting, a draft national security policy directive on terrorism was discussed and passed, and the text was sent back to various agencies for comments. National Security Adviser Rice later said that she believes that Al Qaeda’s strategy will take about three years to work.
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