Regarding September 11, 2001, counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke said: “…until today I had not ever briefed the President [Bush] on terrorism, only [Vice President Dick] Cheney, [National Security Advisor Condoleezza] Rice, and [Secretary of State Colin] Powell. We had finally had our first Principals meeting on terrorism only a week earlier [on September 4]. The next step was to have been a briefing to walk the President through our proposed National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD)… Bush had never seen the plan, the pieces of which had first been briefed to Cheney, Rice, Powell, and others on his team in January.”
– Richard Clarke, Against All Enemies, Page 26