“In a [February 14, 2003] speech at FBI headquarters, President Bush said, ‘We’re trying to protect you. We’re doing everything in our power to make sure the homeland is secure.’ Intelligence officials quoted at the time said they had identified six hundred to one thousand potential al Qaeda terrorists in cells around the United States. Later, in answer to reporters’ questions linking the al Qaeda threat to the impending Iraq invasion, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, ‘Why now? The answer is that every week that goes by, [Saddam’s] weapons of mass destruction programs become more mature [and] he has relationships with terrorist networks.’ ”
– Peter Lance, Triple Cross, Page 476