Bob Woodward
 

This is an account of President George W. Bush at war during the first
100 days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The information I obtained for this book includes contemporaneous
notes taken during more than 50 National Security Council and other
meetings where the most important decisions were discussed and made.
Many direct quotations of the president and the war cabinet members
come from these notes. Other personal notes, memos, calendars,
written internal chronologies, transcripts and other documents also
were the basis for direct quotations and other parts of this story.
In addition, I interviewed more than 100 people involved in the
decision making and execution of the war, including President Bush,
key war cabinet members, theWhite House staff, and officials currently
serving at various levels of the Defense and State Departments and the
CIA. Most sources were interviewed multiple times, several a half-dozen
or more times. Most of the interviews were conducted on background -
meaning that I could use the information but the sources would not be
identified by name in this book. Nearly all allowed me to tape-record
our interviews, so the story could be told more fully and with the exact
language they used.
I have attributed thoughts, conclusions and feelings to the
participants. These come either from the person himself, a colleague
with direct knowledge of them, or the written record - both classified
and unclassified.
President Bush was interviewed on the record twice - once for 90
minutes by myself and Dan Balz, a colleague at The Washington Post,
for a lengthy eight-part series, “Ten Days in September,” which was
published in the Post in early 2002.1 have drawn on that interview and
the series for a portion of this book. I interviewed President Bush a
second time on August 20, 2002, at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, for
two hours and 25 minutes. The transcript shows that I asked questions
or made short comments 300 times. The president gave specific
answers, often very detailed, about his reactions and reasoning behind
the main decisions and turning points in the war.
War planning and war making involve secret information. I have used
IV
a good deal of it, trying to provide new specific details without harming
sensitive operations or relationships with foreign governments. This is
not a sanitized version, and the censors, if we had them in the United
States - thank God we don’t - would no doubt draw the line at a
different, more restrictive place than I have.
This book contains a voluminous amount of new, documented
information which I was able to obtain while memories were freshest
and notes could be deciphered. It is an inside account, largely the story
as the insiders saw it, heard it and lived it. Since it covers events and
secret deliberations that began just over a year ago, it is an early version.
But I was able to test the information I had for accuracy and context
with trusted sources I have known for years and in some cases decades.
Criticism, the judgments of history and other information may, over
the coming months and years, alter the historical understanding of this
era. This is my effort to get the best obtainable version of the truth.
In 1991, I published a book called The Commanders which was about
the 1989 invasion of Panama and the lead-up to the Gulf War during
the presidency of Bush’s father, President George H.W. Bush.
“The decision to go to war is one that defines a nation, both to the
world and, perhaps more importantly, to itself,” I wrote at the
beginning of that book. “There is no more serious business for a
national government, no more accurate measure of national
leadership.” That is truer today than perhaps ever.
BobWoodward October 11,2002 Washington, D.C.