Counterterrorism czar Richard “Clarke and his aides composed a three-page memorandum to [National Security Advisor Condoleezza] Rice dated January 25 [2001]…He urged covert aid to [Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah] Massoud, new Predator [drone] flights, and other measures. A Cabinet-level meeting about al Qaeda’s imminent threat was ‘urgently needed,’ he and his chief of staff, Roger Cressey, wrote. This was not ‘some narrow little terrorist issue.’ Suspected al Qaeda ‘sleeper cells’ inside the United States were ‘a major threat in being.’ ”
– Steve Coll, Ghost Wars, Page 547