Chapter 4 "Responses to al-Qaeda's Initial Assaults" Summary and Analysis

Although President Clinton issued two Presidential Decision Directives (in 1995 and 1998) reiterating that terrorism was a national security threat and not simply a law enforcement issue, the government never formed a coherent policy aimed at destroying al-Qaeda before 9/11. Not even the embassy bombings in East Africa triggered such a coherent objective. Terrorism continued to be treated in a fragmented manner by many federal agencies.

As early as 1992, the U.S. government became aware of Osama bin Laden's involvement in financing terrorist attacks against U.S. interests. In that year, the State Department detected his financing of an attempt to bomb U.S. troops in Aden, Yemen. In 1996, the CIA was concerned enough about bin Laden to set up a unit of about a dozen officers that would monitor him and...