In a message to combatant commanders in the counterterrorism campaign, on September 19, 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said he was looking for three objectives:
” ‘1. Targets worldwide, such as UBL [Usama bin Laden] Al Qaida cells in regions outside Afghanistan and even outside the Middle East. …It will be important to indicate early on that our field of action is much wider than Afghanistan.
2. Ground targets that provide opportunities to bring back intelligence that could help us to run down terrorists’ networks.
3. Opportunities to demonstrate a capability or a boldness that will give pause to terrorists and/or those who harbor terrorists and force them to exercise much greater care, at greater cost or with much greater fear than they otherwise might have.’ ”
– Douglas Feith, War and Decision, Page 55