ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Espionage, Intelligence, and Security Volume ...

Bush Administration, United States National Security PolicyPresident Bush meets with his National Security Council in the White House situation room in October, 2001. Clockwise, from center are: White House Chief ofStaff Andrew Card, Vice president Dick Cheney, President Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and National SecurityAdvisor Condoleeza Rice. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS.system and advanced a new doctrine that took into accountthe shadowy nature of terrorism. With this theory ofpre-emption, Bush argued that the U.S. possessed theright and the moral responsibility to launch preventivestrikes against states that posed a danger to nationalsecurity even when that danger was not imminent. Thisdoctrine led to the U.S. led attack upon Iraq, OperationIraqi Freedom, in 2003.Bush, a past governor of Texas, took office with littleexperience in foreign affairs. Nine months into his presidency,the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, revealedshortcomings in national security. Simply, the majorinstitutions of American national security were designedduring the Cold War to meet the requirements of that eraand failed to adequately protect the U.S. from the twentyfirstcentury threat of global terrorism. To meet the challengeof retooling the security system, Bush relied uponDonald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense, Colin Powell asSecretary of State, and Condoleezza Rice as NationalSecurity Advisor.In order to address terrorism, the Bush administrationchanged the way that security threats were identifiedand monitored. Designed with the aim of collecting informationabout the massive and immobile Soviet bloc, theEncyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Securityintelligence community now had to follow a far morecomplex and elusive set of targets. The administrationstrengthened intelligence warning and analysis to provideintegrated threat assessments for national and homelandsecurity. Through such new creations as the TerroristThreat Integration Center and the use of such older networksas Interpol, the U.S. disrupted terrorist networks,removed key leaders, and arrested more than 3,000 terroristsaround the world. The new Department of HomelandSecurity intensified security at borders and ports of entrythrough measures that included posting more than 50,000federal screeners in airports.Afghanistan had provided a safe base for al-Qaedaterrorists to plot against the U.S. and this country becamethe first target of an anti-terrorism strike. The 2001 war inAfghanistan aimed to capture al-Qaeda leader Osama binLaden, remove a government that had permitted the growthof terrorism, and establish a democratic system. While thegovernment quickly collapsed and the terrorist supportnetwork appears to be shattered, bin Laden, as of June,2003, has not been captured. Significant numbers of U.S.military forces remain in the country to continue thesearch for terrorists and to serve as peacekeepers.149