In April 2002, “CIA case officers stationed all over Europe were ordered to attend a special conference in Rome, during which officials from the CIA’s Iraq Operations Group casually told the assembled CIA officers that Iraq had been on the Bush agenda from the very beginning. ‘They said this was on Bush’s agenda when he got elected, and that 9/11 only delayed it,’ said one CIA officer who attended the conference. ‘They implied that 9/11 was a distraction from Iraq. And they said Bush was committed to a change of leadership in Iraq, and that it would start with kinetic energy–meaning bombs. Meaning war.’ “ [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– James Risen, State of War, Page 77