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Bush Admin. Defends al-Qaida Review
Monday, August 5, 2002
By Scott Lindlaw
Associated Press Writer

A few days after Bush took office in January 2001, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice asked for proposals for major presidential policy review and, based on a response from Clark, ordered a review of policy toward al-Qaida, the senior official said. Top administration officials approved the "comprehensive strategy to eliminate al-Qaida" exactly one week before the Sept. 11 attacks, McCormack said.

WASHINGTON -- AP
Bush administration officials say they moved as quickly as possible to assemble a plan for eliminating the al-Qaida terror network, defending a review that took eight months and was completed only a week before the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Clinton administration had handed off to the incoming Bush team detailed assessments of the threat, and offered ideas on how to counter al-Qaida.

But aides to President Bush took issue Sunday with a report in this week's Time magazine that the current administration's review of its predecessor's briefings became bogged down in bureaucracy.

The Bush White House denied receiving any firm plans for dealing with al-Qaida, which has been tied to the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.
(More: The Macon Telegraph News Source)
2002 © The Associated Press.

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