Kammala wannan jumla: Ta'addanci ya fito a matsayin muhimmin batun tsaro na kasa a gwamnatin Clinton, kuma ya zama daya daga cikin batutuwan da suka shafi gwamnatin Bush. A ƙarshen 1980s, Osama bin Laden ya kafa al-Qaeda, wata ƙungiya mai tsattsauran ra'ayi ta Musulunci ta Sunni wacce ta nemi kifar da gwamnatocin da ke samun goyon bayan Yammacin Turai a Saudi Arabiya, Jordan, Masar, da Pakistan. A matsayin martani ga shawarar Saudiyya ta fara karbar bakuncin sojojin Amurka a 1991, al-Qaeda ta fara yakin ta'addanci kan Amurka, ta shirya hare-hare kamar na 1998
Jirgin ruwan USS Cole da aka yi wa bam. A farkon watanni na Bush a ofishin, kungiyoyin leken asirin Amurka sun katse sadarwa da ke nuna cewa al-Qaeda na shirin wani hari kan Amurka, amma jami'an manufofin kasashen waje ba su shirya wa wani babban hari kan Amurka ba. An sanar da Bush game da ayyukan al-Qaeda, amma ya mai da hankali kan wasu batutuwan manufofin kasashen waje a farkon watanni a ofis.