Chapter 1: "This Means War"

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3 “Terrorism against our nation will not stand.”: “Remarks by the President after Two Planes Crash into World Trade Center,” Emma Booker Elementary School, Sarasota, Florida, September 11, 2001, 9:30 a.m.

3 “this aggression against Kuwait”: “Remarks and an Exchange with Reporters on the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait,” George Bush Presidential Library and Museum Archives, August 5, 1990.

3 protection against ballistic missiles: The Times was intensely negative about missile defense and often used the 9/11 attack as a debating point. On September 12, 2001, it ran no fewer than four  pieces—two news stories, one  op-ed article, and one  editorial—saying that the attacks may and should “undercut Mr. Bush’s campaign for a missile defense shield. . . .” R. W. Apple Jr., “A Day of Terror; Awaiting the Aftershocks,” New York Times, September 12, 2001, p. A1. See also Patrick E. Tyler, “Bush Aides Say Attacks Don’t Recast Shield Debate,” New York Times, September 12, 2001, p. A24; Anthony Lewis, “Abroad at Home; A Different World,” New York Times, September 12, 2001, p. A27; Editorial, “The War Against America; The National Defense,” New York Times, p. A26.

3 “some type of fire at the Pentagon”: Public Affairs Office, U.S. Embassy Moscow, informal transcript of press conference by Douglas J. Feith and J. D. Crouch, September 11, 2001.

4 “committed by a pirate or a slaver”: Feith memo to Rumsfeld, “Response to Terror Attacks,” September 11, 2001 (cable from U.S. Defense Attaché’s Office, Moscow, Russia).

6 viewed the previous day’s attack as “war”: “Remarks by the President in Photo Opportunity with the National Security Team,” Cabinet Room, White House, September 12, 2001, 10:53 a.m.

7 invoked to explain their actions: See, e.g., Blaine Harden, “Terrorism . . . Are the Reasons for It as Simple as Ronald Reagan, Alexander Haig and Claire Sterling Would Have Us Believe?” Washington Post Magazine, March 15, 1981, p. 15; Diana Johnston, “Terrorism’s  Terror—It’s Fascinating,” Los Angeles Times, April 24, 1981, p. 7. The difference in approach is well described in Robert M. Gates, “The CIA and American Foreign Policy,” Foreign Affairs 66, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 1987/88), pp. 215–230.

9 coining the term “war on terror”: President Bush was using the terms “war on terrorism” and “war on terror” in his public statements by September 16, 2001. “Remarks by the President Upon Arrival,” South Lawn, White House, September 16, 2001.

16 injured more than four thousand others: See “African Embassy Bombings,” Online NewsHour Special Report, Online NewsHour, updated October 18, 2001.

16 he had directed the 9/11 attack: In late November 2001, U.S. forces in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, found the video of Usama bin Laden and an unidentified sheikh, believed to have been taped in Kandahar in  mid-November. The Defense Department released the tape and a translation of the transcript on December 13, 2001, which contained the following comments by bin Laden:

"[W]e calculated in advance the number of casualties from the enemy, who would be killed based on the position of the tower. We calculated that the floors that would be hit would be three or four floors. I was the most optimistic of them all. (Inaudible) due to my experience in this field, I was thinking that the fire from the gas in the plane would melt the iron structure of the building and collapse the area where the plane hit and all the floors above it only. This is all that we had hoped for. The brothers, who conducted the operation, all they knew was that they have a martyrdom operation and we asked each of them to go to America but they  didn’t know anything about the operation, not even one letter. But they were trained and we did not reveal the operation to them until they are there and just before they boarded the planes."

U.S. Department of Defense, “Transcript of Usama Bin Laden Video Tape,” December 13, 2001. See U.S. Department of Defense, News Release, “U.S. Releases Videotape of Osama Bin Laden,” December 13, 2001.

20 flexible enough to handle: U.S. Department of Defense, Quadrennial Defense Review Report, September 30, 2001.

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