“On May 8 [2001], [President] Bush publicly announced that [Vice President Dick] Cheney would be leading a comprehensive review of U.S. government homeland security, which the official White House statement described as an effort to ensure ‘domestic preparedness against weapons of mass destruction.’ The president noted that an increasing number of terrorist-friendly countries had acquired WMD and ‘some nonstate terrorist groups have also demonstrated an interest in acquiring weapons of mass destruction.’ Bush declared that his administration would pursue policies designed to slow the proliferation of WMD and deter their use. Cheney’s project, however, would focus on the governmental response after an attack, known in the national security bureaucracy as ‘consequence management.’ It was neither offensive nor defensive, but responsive.”
– Stephen F. Hayes, Cheney, Pages 319-320