On March 14, 2003, “[Counterterrorism Adviser Rand] Beers quietly tendered his resignation, something almost unheard-of for a senior member of the National Security Council staff in a time of war. Beers recalls his thinking at the time: ‘We were taking our eye off bin Laden and we were going to pay for it, both with respect to the capture, kill, dismantle, neutralize effort against al-Qaeda and equally, or more important, our longer-term effort to delegitimize him and his movement.’ “
– Peter Bergen, The Longest War, Page 155