The CIA briefs National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice that its “preliminary judgment” is that a “strong circumstantial case” can be made that al Qaeda was behind the October 2000 attack on the USS Cole in Yemen, but that it lacked “conclusive information on external command and control” of the attack.
A week later, Roger Cressey on the NSC staff writes to Deputy National Security Advisor Hadley that while the investigation was continuing, “we know all we need to about who did the attack to make a policy decision” regarding retaliation. His boss, Richard Clarke meanwhile writes to Rice and Hadley that the Yemeni prime minister said that while Yemen was not saying so publicly, he was 99 percent certain that bin Laden was responsible. The Bush administration, nevertheless, has no interest in another cruise missile attack ala Clinton – swatting at flies – the principals increasingly seeing Clarke (and CIA director Tenet) as advocates for what they consider to be insufficient and failed policies.