Nov. 1, 2001 – Bush issues Executive Order 13233, “Presidential Records Act Executive Order,” which revokes a previous Executive Order by President Ronald Reagan. The order gives a current president or a former president the power to withhold presidential records indefinitely:

 
“(a) At an appropriate time after the Archivist receives a request for access to Presidential records under section 2204(c)(1), the Archivist shall provide notice to the former President and the incumbent President and, as soon as practicable, shall provide the former President and the incumbent President copies of any records that the former President and the incumbent President request to review.

(b) After receiving the records he requests, the former President shall review those records as expeditiously as possible, and for no longer than 90 days for requests that are not unduly burdensome. The Archivist shall not permit access to the records by a requester during this period of review or when requested by the former President to extend the time for review.

(c) After review of the records in question, or of any other potentially privileged records reviewed by the former President, the former President shall indicate to the Archivist whether the former President requests withholding of or authorizes access to any privileged records.

(d) Concurrent with or after the former President's review of the records, the incumbent President or his designee may also review the records in question, or may utilize whatever other procedures the incumbent President deems appropriate to decide whether to concur in the former President's decision to request withholding of or authorize access to the records.”

Also, for the first time, this Order gives the Executive branch the same power with regard to vice presidential records:

 
“(a) Pursuant to section 2207 of title 44 of the United States Code, the Presidential Records Act applies to the executive records of the Vice President. Subject to subsections (b) and (c), this order shall also apply with respect to any such records that are subject to any constitutionally based privilege that the former Vice President may be entitled to invoke, but in the administration of this order with respect to such records, references in this order to a former President shall be deemed also to be references to the relevant former Vice President.

(b) Subsection (a) shall not be deemed to authorize a Vice President or former Vice President to invoke any constitutional privilege of a President or former President except as authorized by that President or former President.

(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to grant, limit, or otherwise affect any privilege of a President, Vice President, former President, or former Vice President.”

 
The effect of the order, of course, is to heighten government secrecy as well as to concentrate further power in the hands of the Executive branch. More specifically, it aids in concealing both the lead-up to Iraq and the lack of due precautions before September 11, 2001.

Nov. 16, 2001 – An anthrax letter addressed to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is discovered in a State Department mail facility in Sterling, Virginia, where the letter was apparently routed by error.

Nov. 19, 2001 – Amidst heightened concerns over bioweapons and germ warfare during the anthrax scare of fall 2001, the New York Times publishes a frightening article citing unnamed administration officials, by Judith Miller:

 
“The United States has concluded that North Korea, Iraq and at least three other countries are developing germ weapons, and has decided to accuse them of violating a treaty they ratified banning such weapons, administration officials said this weekend. . .

“The accusations are to be made today in Geneva by John R. Bolton, under secretary of state, at an international conference aimed at strengthening compliance with and enforcement of the treaty, which dates to 1972 and has been ratified by more than 140 countries, including the United States . . . The decision to "name names," as Mr. Bolton's speech puts it, is part of a new strategy to persuade countries to stop developing germ weapons by embarrassing suspected treaty cheaters. "Prior to September 11, some would have avoided this approach," states the speech Mr. Bolton is scheduled to give, a copy of which was provided to The New York Times. "The world has changed, however, and so must our business-as-usual approach.”

(“A Nation Challenged: Bioterror; U.S. Publicly Accusing 5 Countries of Violating Germ-Weapons Treaty,” B1)

The effect of the article is to link Iraq rhetorically with the anthrax attacks of fall 2001, without explicitly making any direct statement requiring documentation. As is typical of this kind of faceless administration claim, the underlying accusations connecting Iraq, North Korea and unnamed other countries with biowarfare are not followed up with sources or evidence.

 
This article, strongly suggesting that either John Bolton or someone in his office is the source, is only one of numerous indications that the administration and its allies in media would like to use the anthrax mailings as a public-relations thrust against Iraq. Given that direct sunlight is one of the ways to kill anthrax spores, the whole effort to link anthrax to Iraq is ludicrous from the outset.

The month of November, 2001, will indeed be pivotal in the turn from Afghanistan to target Iraq, see below.