In a principals meeting on February 5, 2001, which was a follow-up to the Bush Administration’s first National Security Council meeting on January 30, “the participants reported back on their Iraq assignments of the week before. [Secretary of State Colin] Powell told the group about plans for what had been dubbed ‘smart sanctions,’ while [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld outlined a new set of ‘response options’ for U.S. and British pilots patrolling the skies over Iraq. Pilots would have latitude to bomb radar, antiaircraft, and command-and-control centers beyond the no-fly zones. The idea was to make the pilots less vulnerable while tightening the noose on Saddam, and the president readily gave his approval.”
– Elisabeth Bumiller, Condoleezza Rice: An American Life, Page 141