From Threat to Threat

¶In chapters 3 and 4 we described how the U.S. government adjusted its existing agencies and capacities to address the emerging threat from Usama Bin Ladin and his associates. After the August 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, President Bill Clinton and his chief aides explored ways of getting Bin Ladin expelled from Afghanistan or possibly capturing or even killing him. Although disruption efforts around the world had achieved some successes, the core of Bin Ladin's organization remained intact.

¶President Clinton was deeply concerned about Bin Ladin. He and his national security advisor, Samuel "Sandy" Berger, ensured they had a special daily pipeline of reports feeding them the latest updates on Bin Ladin's reported location.¹¹ President Clinton was a voracious reader of intelligence. He received the President's Daily Brief (PDB), Senior Executive Intelligence Brief (SEIB), and the State Department's intelligence updates daily, as well as other products episodically. Berger, Clarke, and Chief of Staff John Podesta received daily Bin Ladin "Situation Reports" from the CIA detailing Bin Ladin's reported location and movements. Berger told us he would tell President Clinton if there was anything in these reports that he needed to know. Samuel Berger interview (Jan. 14, 2004). Information on distribution of Bin Ladin Situation Reports provided to the Commission by CIA.Show full note In public, President Clinton spoke repeatedly about the threat of terrorism, referring to terrorist training camps but saying little about Bin Ladin and nothing about al Qaeda. He explained to us that this was deliberate-intended to avoid enhancing Bin Ladin's stature by giving him unnecessary publicity. His speeches focused especially on the danger of nonstate actors and of chemical and biological weapons.²² President Clinton spoke of terrorism in numerous public statements. In his August 5, 1996, remarks at George Washington University, he called terrorism "the enemy of our generation." He usually spoke of terrorism in two related contexts: new technologies and the greater openness engendered by post–Cold War globalization; and weapons of mass destruction (WMD), especially—and increasingly over time—the threat from biological and chemical weapons. President Clinton repeatedly linked terrorist groups and WMD as transnational threats for the new global era. See, e.g., President Clinton remarks,"On Keeping America Secure for the 21st Century," Jan. 22, 1999 (at the National Academy of Sciences,Washington, D.C.), in which he spoke directly to these topics.Show full note

¶As the millennium approached, the most publicized worries were not about terrorism but about computer breakdowns—the Y2K scare. Some government officials were concerned that terrorists would take advantage of such breakdowns.³³ President Clinton spoke of the Y2K computer problem in his January 19, 1999, State of the Union address. On Y2K concerns, see John Podesta interview (Jan. 15, 2004). On concerns about extremist groups exploiting millennial opportunities, see, e.g., CIA briefing materials, CTC for the DCI,"Millennium Threat," Dec. 16, 1999.