The CIA delivers two document drafts in response to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice’s request for a new series of authorities relating to covert action in Afghanistan and against Osama bin Laden.
The new presidential finding drafts are labeled “consolidation plus” and are to supersede the various Clinton administration findings. One addressing more assistance to anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan, including the so-called Northern Alliance, Uzbek groups in the northwest and Pashtun groups in the souths. The other was a draft Memorandum of Notification, the formal name for a President finding on covert action, which included more open-ended language authorizing possible lethal action in a variety of situations. The findings were never signed before 9/11, put on hold until a regional policy direction was determined.