“Early in [January 10] 2001, [Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) George] Tenet and Deputy Director for Operations James Pavitt gave an intelligence briefing to President-elect Bush, Vice President-elect [Dick] Cheney, and [incoming National Security Advisor Condoleezza] Rice; it included the topic of al Qaeda. Pavitt recalled conveying that Bin Ladin was one of the greatest threats to the country. Bush asked whether killing Bin Ladin would end the problem. Pavitt said that he and the DCI [Tenet] had answered that killing Bin Ladin would have an impact, but would not stop the threat. The CIA later provided more formal assessments to the White House [on February 21, 2001] reiterating that conclusion. It added that in the long term, the only way to deal with the threat was to end al Qaeda’s ability to use Afghanistan as a sanctuary for its operations.”
– 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report, Page 348