“After reviewing recent history, he [Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld] argued in the memo [he approved on July 27, 2001] that sanctions [on Iraq] were proving insufficient to compel Saddam to change his policies and were getting weaker: ‘[Saddam] undid the UN inspections in the 1990s and is working now to further undo the sanctions and the no-fly zones. He appears to believe he is getting stronger.’ On the no-fly zones, Rumsfeld pointed to a shoot-down of a U.S. or U.K. plane as ‘an increasingly likely danger,’ and argued that the recent ground-to-air attacks demonstrated:
*’a greater degree of Iraqi aggressiveness; and, even more important,
*what appears to be significantly improved Iraqi air defense capability, coupled with a reduction in U.S. ability to know what they are doing–partly because of their improved fiber-optic linkages.’ ”
– Douglas Feith, War and Decision, Page 210