Senator Gary Hart (D-CO) and former Senator Warren Rudman (R-NH) were co-chairmen “of the U.S. Commission on National Security, a bipartisan panel that conducted the most thorough investigation of U.S. security challenges since World War II. After completing the report, which warned that a devastating terrorist attack on America was imminent and called for the immediate creation of a Cabinet-level national security agency, and delivering it to President Bush on January 31, 2001, Hart and Rudman personally briefed [National Security Advisor Condoleezza] Rice, [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell. But, according to Hart, the Bush administration never followed up on the commission’s urgent recommendations, even after he repeated them in a private White House meeting with Rice just days before 9/11.”
– David Talbot, “Condi Rice’s Other Wake-up Call,” Salon.com, April 2, 2004