OSAMA vs. SADDAM

Below I noted the Bush Administrations early concern about Saddam and Iraq. Bob Woodward also recorded this bit about the first intelligence briefing the Administration received:

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Bush received a second critical national security briefing a few days later. CIA Director George Tenet and his deputy for operations, James L. Pavitt, gave Bush, Cheney and Rice the so-called secrets briefing. For two and one-half hours, the two ran through the good, bad and ugly about covert operations, the latest technical surveillance and eavesdropping, the “who” and “how” of the secret payroll.

When all the intelligence was sorted, weighed and analyzed, Tenet and Pavitt agreed there were three major threats to American national security. One was Osama Bin Laden and his al Queda terrorist network, which operated out of a sanctuary in Afghanistan. Bin Laden terrorism was a “tremendous threat” which had to be considered “immediate,” they said. There was no doubt that bin Laden going to strike at United States interests in some form. It was not clear when, where, by what means. President Clinton had authorized the CIA in five separate intelligence orders to try to disrupt and destroy al Queda.

A second major threat was the increasing proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, WMD – chemical, biological and nuclear. This was of immense concern, they said. Third was the rise of China, specially its military, but that problem was 5 to 15 or more years away.

Iraq was barely mentioned. Tenet did not have an agenda for Iraq as he did for bin Laden or al Queda.

Berger also stated in his prepared testimony before the Commission that he had spoken with National Security Advisor Rice:

When the Clinton administration ended, we did our best to alert the incoming team to the terrorist threat in general and the al Qaeda threat specifically. During the transition, Bush administration officials received intensive briefings on terrorism. As the press has reported, I told my successor Condoleeza Rice that she would be spending more time on terrorism and bin Laden than any other issue.


This is what Rice had to say:

The President-elect and I were briefed by George Tenet on terrorism and on the al-Qaida network. Members of Sandy Berger’s NSC staff briefed me, along with other members of the new national security team, on counterterrorism and al-Qaida. This briefing lasted about one hour, and it reviewed the Clinton Administration’s counterterrorism approach and the various counterterrorism activities then underway. Sandy and I personally discussed a variety of other topics, including North Korea, Iraq, the Middle East, and the Balkans.
Because of these briefings and because we had watched the rise of al-Qaida over the years, we understood that the network posed a serious threat to the United States. We wanted to ensure there was no respite in the fight against al-Qaida. On an operational level, we decided immediately to continue pursuing the Clinton Administration’s covert action authorities and other efforts to fight the network. President Bush retained George Tenet as Director of Central Intelligence, and Louis Freeh remained the Director of the FBI. I took the unusual step of retaining Dick Clarke and the entire Clinton Administration’s counterterrorism team on the NSC staff.

[SNIP]

We also moved to develop a new and comprehensive strategy to eliminate the al-Qaida terrorist network. President Bush understood the threat, and he understood its importance. He made clear to us that he did not want to respond to al-Qaida one attack at a time. He told me he was “tired of swatting flies.” This new strategy was developed over the Spring and Summer of 2001, and was approved by the President’s senior national security officials on September 4.

Despite being told about the "imminent" threat of al Queda, the Bush Administration did not take any actions of its own until the Spring of 2001 and their new strategy wasn't approved for the President until 9/4/01.