On December 20, 2001, President Bush said of bin Laden: ” ‘There was a significant difference in my attitude after Sept. 11. I was not on point, but I knew he was a menace, and I knew he was a problem. …I was prepared to look at a plan that would be a thoughtful plan that would bring him to justice, and would have given the order to do that. I have no hesitancy about going after him. But I didn’t feel that sense of urgency, and my blood was not nearly as boiling.” [The date of the interview, December 20, 2001, is from The Washington Post excerpts from that interview in “‘There Is No Doubt in My Mind. Not One Doubt.'” The words “I didn’t feel that sense of urgency” are verbatim in both the excerpts and the January 28, 2002, article, although other words vary slightly between the two articles.]
– Bob Woodward and Dan Balz, “’We Will Rally the World’,” part two of the series “Ten Days in September,” The Washington Post, Jan. 28, 2002