On September 4, 2001, counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke wrote National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice a memo “in which Clarke seemed to predict what was just about to happen. It was a memo that seemed to spill out all of Clarke’s frustration about how slowly the Bush White House had responded to a cascade of terrorist threats that summer. The note was terrifying in its presence. ‘Are we serious about dealing with the Al Qaeda threat?’ he asked Rice. ‘Decision makers should imagine themselves on a future day when CSG [Counterterrorism Security Group] has not succeeded in stopping Al Qaeda attacks and hundreds of Americans lay dead in several countries, including the U.S. What would those decision makers which that they had done earlier? That future day could happen at any time.’ ”
– Philip Shenon, The Commission, Page 148