The new President George W. Bush signs a letter to Pakistani president General Pervez Musharraf seeking more help from Islamabad in the CIA’s efforts to go after the Taliban and Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. By Bush’s inaugural, the CIA has multiple covert actions underway to spy on, capture, or kill bin Laden. To be successful, the Agency thought, it needed more cooperation from Pakistan, both as a staging base for operations and a source of intelligence.
National security advisor Condoleezza Rice is particularly keen on build a “regional” strategy that includes Pakistan in dealing with the Taliban and al Qaeda, and generally skeptical of the existing covert actions. Articulations of her regional strategy meander through the NSC and the interagency process throughout the spring and summer of 2001, a more comprehensive program to be sure in isolating the Taliban and pressuring bin Laden but lacking any urgency. The strategy document is literally circulating in final draft when the 9/11 attacks came.