MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

Event: Interview of Jim Bodner

Type of Event: Interview
Date: March 2004
Prepared by: Bonnie D. Jenkins
Classification: Top Secret
Team Number: 3 (Counterterrorism Policy)
Location: 2100 K Street
Participants - Non-Commission: Jim Bodner
Participants - Commission: Chris Kojm, Steve Dunne, Michael Hurley,
Bonnie Jenkins

Introduction
(U) Jim Bodner is currently working at The Cohen Group in Washington, DC. During the
Clinton Administration, from January 1997 - October 1998, he was Special Assistant to
Secretary William Cohen and to the Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre. From
October 1998 - January 2001, he was the Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Policy
and also had the title of Counselor to the Secretary.

(TS) The purpose of the interview was to understand whether Bodner had any knowledge
of the Tom Kuster memorandum written when Kuster was the Deputy Director of the
counterterrorism (CT) Division in the office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict (SOILIC) in the 1998 time frame. The
memorandum discusses the possibility of a more aggressive offensive strategy against
terrorists that could be undertaken by the Department of Defense.

(U) After taking time to review the document, Bodner said he did not recall the
memorandum. He noted the document was not in the form that a memorandum it would
be in if it were forwarded up the chain of command in the Pentagon. Bodner noted that
this is a small point, but documents are not circulated to the higher-ups if they are not
prepared in the proper format. That, however, does not mean such documents could not
be informally circulated. If the document went to Bodner's office, Bodner would have
seen it. He said, "There was a well beaten path from SOlLIe to my office." It is unlikely
the document would have come through the front office and not gone through Bodner's
hands. Bodner also noted that he met often with Brian Sheridan, the Assistant Secretary
of Defense for SOlLIe, but did not have many policy discussions with Kuster.
cPS) Some of the issues mentioned in the memorandum were being addressed by other
elements in the Department because those matters were outside SO/LIC's area of
responsibility. Such issues would have leapt out to him ifhe had seen them because he
would have noted they were already being taken care of. For example, regarding
offensive operations and DoD/CIA collaborations, others in the department were engaged
in that process. Kuster was not involved in that so would not have known that was
already being addressed.

~ Bodner sensed the document predated Infinite Reach and was probably drafted
before the East Africa bombings and then rewritten and printed after the bombings. There
are bullets talking about considerations of attacking known leaderships. That is obviously
what happened in Infinite Reach. There is also no reference to Infinite Reach.

(U) Bodner said the memorandum reads like a think piece with frustrations incorporated
into it. It is likely that Kuster was working on the memorandum for many months as he
went about his job. However, in the immediate wake of the Africa embassy bombings, he
reworked and printed the document. There may be later versions of the document because
it does not attribute the embassy bombings to anyone.