Page 1 of2

Mike Hurley

From: Daniel Byman

Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 6:10 PM
To: Mike Hurley
Cc: Warren Bass
Subject: Re: pres Clinton interview

I'll call soon. On Clinton:

1. Did he understand the urgency of the threat? If yes, why was he not more aggressive (i.e. why didn't
he do what Clarke proposed as early as 1998)? Why did he cross out certain sentences? Did anyone tell
him the problems this caused?

2. How much of a priority did he make this vs. Iraq, Kosovo, and other issues.

3. Why didn't he prepare public opinion (as Commission Kerry noted) on issues related to increased
military clashes with Afghanistan?

4. Why didn't he do more on homeland defense if he saw it as a such a problem?

On Rice:

1. The obvious: if you were warned by Clarke on Jan 25, why wait until Sept 4? And why was Sept 4
inconclusive?

2. Did (does) the interagency process work for CT issues?

3. Where was terrorism among adminstration priorities? Compare it to NMD, China, etc.?

4. General: what is your opinion of Richard Clarke's charge that the war against Iraq hindered the war
on al-Qa'ida?

5. Ask her opinion of Armitage's testimony that this wasn't treated as truly urgent.

One possible bit of background material: the NYT today (I think) ran a comparison of Rice's statements
and the Clarke charges.

Best,
Dan

Mike Hurley wrote:

Dan,

Please send any thoughts you have on what should be the "key" questions for President Clinton,
who we'll interview Thursday, April 8 in the afternoon. What do we have to cover with him? What
can only he answer?

We need to get a Clinton script to the FO this Friday.

3/31/2004
 Page 2 of2

Also, do you have any suggestions as to what other background materials would be useful for
commissioners in advance of that session?

We're also crafting questions/lines of inquiry for the Rice public hearing (which will take place next
week). We're thinking through what we want the public to learn from that hearing. Please send us
your suggested questions.

Warren and I would deeply appreciate your input.

FYI: We should speak in person as soon as possible. Philip now has a new approach for the Final
Report (FR); it entails assigning lead writers for specific topics. This morning at the team leaders'
meeting, Philip made clear the FR is the number one priority. Thus, our monograph deadline
becomes far less rigid.

Regards,

Mike

3/31/2004