Then-CIA Director George Tenet wrote: “Less than two months after the [August 20, 1998] cruise missile attacks [on bin Laden-owned property], on November 5, 1998, I wrote President [Bill] Clinton a letter saying that I needed a massive infusion of funds to position the intelligence community where it needed to be in the fight of our lifetime. The signs were everywhere that al-Qa’ida had plans for bigger, more spectacular attacks on U.S. interests. To combat our enemies and protect American interests, I said, we needed ‘roughly $2 billion more per year for the intelligence budget.’ …As happened with earlier requests, we received only a small portion of what we asked for.”
– George Tenet with Bill Harlow, At the Center of the Storm, Page 117