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President Bush told us that before 9/11 there was an appetite in the gov-
ernment for killing Bin Ladin, not for war. Looking back in 2004, he equated
the presidential directive with a readiness to invade Afghanistan.The problem,
he said, would have been how to do that if there had not been another attack
on America. To many people, he said, it would have seemed like an ultimate
act of unilateralism. But he said that he was prepared to take that on.
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Domestic Change and Continuity
During the transition, Bush had chosen John Ashcroft, a former senator from
Missouri, as his attorney general. On his arrival at the Justice Department,
Ashcroft told us, he faced a number of problems spotlighting the need for
reform at the FBI.
229
In February, Clarke briefed Attorney General Ashcroft on his directorate's
issues. He reported that at the time, the attorney general acknowledged a
"steep learning curve," and asked about the progress of the Cole investiga-
tion.
230
Neither Ashcroft nor his predecessors received the President's Daily
Brief. His office did receive the daily intelligence report for senior officials
that, during the spring and summer of 2001, was carrying much of the same
threat information.
The FBI was struggling to build up its institutional capabilities to do more
against terrorism, relying on a strategy called MAXCAP 05 that had been
unveiled in the summer of 2000.The FBI's assistant director for counterterror-
ism, Dale Watson, told us that he felt the new Justice Department leadership
was not supportive of the strategy.Watson had the sense that the Justice Depart-
ment wanted the FBI to get back to the investigative basics: guns, drugs, and
civil rights. The new administration did seek an 8 percent increase in overall
FBI funding in its initial budget proposal for fiscal year 2002, including the
largest proposed percentage increase in the FBI's counterterrorism program
since fiscal year 1997.The additional funds included the FBI's support of the
2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah (a onetime increase), enhanced
security at FBI facilities, and improvements to the FBI's WMD incident
response capability.
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In May, the Justice Department began shaping plans for building a budget
for fiscal year 2003, the process that would usually culminate in an administra-
tion proposal at the beginning of 2002. On May 9, the attorney general testi-
fied at a congressional hearing concerning federal efforts to combat terrorism.
He said that "one of the nation's most fundamental responsibilities is to pro-
tect its citizens . . . from terrorist attacks." The budget guidance issued the next
day, however, highlighted gun crimes, narcotics trafficking, and civil rights as
priorities.Watson told us that he almost fell out of his chair when he saw this
memo, because it did not mention counterterrorism. Longtime FBI Director
Louis Freeh left in June 2001, after announcing the indictment in the Khobar
Towers case that he had worked so long to obtain.Thomas Pickard was the act-
FROM THREAT TO THREAT
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