“When the National Security Council of the new Bush administration held its first deputies meeting on terrorism in April 2001, Richard Clarke, then the White House counterterrorism adviser, talked about the urgent need to go after bin Laden and the al-Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan, according to Clarke’s memoirs. [Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul] Wolfowitz was dismissive. ‘Well, I just don’t understand why we are beginning by talking about this one man, bin Laden,’ he replied. Wolfowitz tried to switch the subject to ‘Iraqi terrorism.’ An exasperated Clarke replied that the intelligence community had no evidence of any recent Iraqi terrorism against the United States.” [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Michael Isikoff and David Corn, Hubris, Pages 76-77