December 15-31, 2001:

Dec. 17, 2001 (about) – The battle of Tora Bora, Afghanistan, ends with the last cave complex being taken by the U.S. Significant Islamist partisans including al-Qaeda figures and Osama bin Laden, however, seem to have escaped; in any event, they are not captured. Bin Laden, whose voice reportedly was heard on audiotape as recently as December 14, is thought to have escaped through the mountains into Pakistan. There is more than one indication that the White House and its political allies in media and elsewhere have already shifted their attention and emphasis away from Afghanistan to Iraq; see below.

Dec. 19, 2001 – Gen. Franks presents a further redone Iraq war plan to Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, who again tells him to redo it.

Dec. 20, 2001 – The New York Times publishes a Page One article by Judith Miller alleging ongoing production of WMD by Saddam Hussein:

 “An Iraqi defector who described himself as a civil engineer said he personally worked on renovations of secret facilities for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in underground wells, private villas and under the Saddam Hussein Hospital in Baghdad as recently as a year ago.  

The defector, Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, gave details of the projects he said he worked on for President Saddam Hussein's government in an extensive interview last week in Bangkok.” (“A Nation Challenged: SECRET SITES; Iraqi Tells of Renovations at Sites for Chemical and Nuclear Arms,” front page)

Defectors cited here and elsewhere by the administration, in regard to Saddam’s WMD capabilities, ultimately wash out as reliable or current sources. This article is among several that have alleged an apparently massive and almost undiscriminating renovation of WMD capability by Saddam, sprinkling facilities geared toward bioweapons, chemical weapons and nuclear weapons throughout the Iraqi infrastructure. In retrospect, it is sad that these claims did not draw more scrutiny if only for their ramshackle multiplicity.

          On this particular date, so close to Christmas and so soon after 9/11, undoubtedly most Americans were reluctant to think about attacking Iraq and thus were also unready to contemplate the administration’s increasingly clear intent to attack.

Dec. 22, 2001 – The U.S.-backed interim government of Hamid Karzai takes office in Afghanistan, replacing the presidency of ethnic Tajik Burhanuddin Rabbani, a former president of Afghanistan. This means, as commentators in the foreign press observe, that now both the President of Afghanistan and the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan are former employees of Unocal.

Dec. 27, 2001 – A videotape showing Osama bin Laden is released. In this tape, apparently new, Bin Laden is shown gaunt and graying.

Same day – SecDef Donald Rumsfeld gives a press conference at the Pentagon. When asked about bin Laden, Rumsfeld brushes him off. Responding to questions about whether it is necessary to bring bin Laden in, dead or alive, Rumsfeld says:

 “We hear six, seven, eight, ten, twelve conflicting reports every day. I've stopped chasing them. We do know of certain knowledge that he is either in Afghanistan or in some other country or dead. (Laughter) And we know of certain knowledge that we don't know, which of those happens to be the case. With respect to the second part of your question, our goals have been stated very clearly, and that they are that we want to stop the terrorist networks in the world, including al-Qaida, but not just al-Qaida. And to do that, you have to go after those networks and root them out; and second, you have to go after the countries that harbor them.”

This use of the word “harbor,” as we now know, is a brilliant rhetorical device to justify attacking countries that have not attacked us. The pretext initiated here, of course, is that Iraq ‘harbors’ al-Qaeda or Islamist fundamentalists, another administration claim that proves false.

Dec. 28, 2001 – Gen. Franks, having come to Crawford, Texas, briefs Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice and others on the Iraq war plan.

Dec. 31, 2001 (about) – An article in Business Week dated December 31 lays out Paul Wolfowitz’ track record in the administration and his open aims on Iraq:

 “Wolfowitz' position on Iraq was forged long before September 11: He advocated helping oust Saddam in 1991 and was one of the first voices to favor taking on Serb dictator Slobodan Milosevic. Wolfowitz also hews to a hard line on the need to defend Taiwan against a possible invasion from China. "When anything happens, he always assumes that it must be solved by the U.S. military," says Yan Xuetong, director of the Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing.”

Dec. 31, 2001 – Zalmay Khalilzad, promoted again, becomes Bush’s Special Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan. As the official announcement reads,

 “Dr. Khalilzad headed the Bush-Cheney Transition team for the Department of Defense and has been a Counselor to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Between 1993 and 1999, Dr. Khalilzad was Director of the Strategy, Doctrine and Force Structure program for RAND's Project Air Force. While with RAND, he founded the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Between 1991 and 1992, Dr. Khalilzad served as Assistant Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning. He also served as a senior political scientist at RAND and an associate professor at the University of California at San Diego in 1989 and 1991. From 1985 to 1989 at the Department of State, Dr. Khalilzad served as Special Advisor to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, advising on the Iran-Iraq War and the Soviet War in Afghanistan. From 1979 to 1989, Dr. Khalilzad was an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. Dr. Khalilzad holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago (1979).”