The Briefing

John McLaughlin, “Governor Bush Briefing,” 2 September 2000.

-Intelligence briefing for candidates running for presidency.

-In the extended session Governor Bush discussed all principal threats to the United States and key international players, both states and personalities. In 2000 these subjects included countries of perennial interest to the Intelligence Community such as China, Russia, and North Korea; the range of active and potential trouble spots in the Middle East an South Asia, notably Iraq, Iran, and the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

-Much of the discussion addressed a particularly high-stakes variant of terrorism—the possible proliferation to terrorists of weapons of mass destruction by rogue states.

President Bush recalled that he, “had received my first briefing on the [al-Qa‘ida] terrorist net- work as a presidential candidate.”

-Bush was an active questioner and participant throughout the morning

-On some issues he helped the briefers calibrate their presentations by sharing information on countries he had or had not visited and explicitly indicating when information was new to him.

-At the end, Bush discussed his expectations of intelligence should he be elected and the importance of deploying intelligence capabilities to identify opportunities, prevent conflict, and protect the United States.

The Process of Running for Presidency