Decision Points

killed on September 11. I felt it was important for the country to mourn together, so I set aside Friday as a National Day of Prayer and Remembrance . I knew September 14 would be a grueling and emotional day. I did not expect it to be the most inspiring one of my life.
    A little after 7:00 a.m., Andy Card met me in the Oval Office for my national security briefing. The CIA believed that there were more al Qaeda operatives in the United States and that they wanted to attack America with biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons. It was hard to imagine anything more devastating than 9/11, but a terrorist attack with weapons of mass destruction would qualify.
    I asked FBI Director Bob Mueller and Attorney General John Ashcroft to update me on the progress of the FBI’s investigation of the hijackers. Bob told me they had identified most of the terrorists and determined when they’d entered the country, where they’d stayed, and how they’d executed the plot. It was an impressive piece of investigation. But it wasn’t enough.

    With Bob Mueller.
White House/Paul Morse

    With John Ashcroft.
Associated Press/Doug Mills
    “What are you doing to stop the next attack?” I asked. People nervously shifted in their seats. I told Bob I wanted the Bureau to adopt a wartime mentality. We needed to disrupt attacks before they happened, not just investigate them after they took place. At the end of the meeting, Bob affirmed, “That’s our new mission, preventing attacks.” Over the years ahead, he fulfilled his promise and carried out the most fundamental transformation of the FBI in its century-long history.
    After a phone call with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel, a leader who understood what it meant to fight terror, I began my first Cabinet meeting since the terrorist attacks. As I stepped into the room, the team broke out in sustained applause. I was surprised, and I choked up at their heartfelt support. The tears flowed for the second time in two days.
    We started the Cabinet meeting with a prayer. I asked Don Rumsfeld to lead it. He offered moving words about the victims of the attacks and asked for the “patience to measure our lust for action.” The moment of silence after the prayer gave me time to collect my emotions. I thought about the speech I would soon give at the National Cathedral. Apparently Colin Powell did, too. The secretary of state slipped me a note.
    “Dear Mr. President,” he wrote. “When I have to give a speech like this, I avoid those words that I know will cause me to well up, such as Mom and Pop.” It was a thoughtful gesture. Colin had seen combat; he knew the powerful emotions we were all feeling and wanted to comfort me. As I began the meeting, I held up the note and joked, “Let me tell you what the secretary of state just told me. … ‘Dear Mr. President, Don’t break down!’ ”

    The National Cathedral is an awesome structure, with 102-foot ceilings, elegant buttresses, and sparkling stained glass. On September 14 the pews were filled to capacity. Former Presidents Ford, Carter, Bush, and Clinton were there with their wives. So was almost every member of Congress, the whole Cabinet, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the justices of the Supreme Court, the diplomatic corps, and families of the victims. One person not there was Dick Cheney . He was at Camp David to ensure the continuity of government, a reminder of the ongoing threat.

    At the National Cathedral.
White House/Eric Draper
    I had asked Laura and Karen Hughes to design the program, and they did a fine job. The speakers included religious leaders of many faiths: Imam Muzammil Siddiqi of the Islamic Society of North America, Rabbi Joshua Haberman , Billy Graham , Cardinal Theodore McCarrick , and Kirbyjon Caldwell . Near the end of the service, my turn came. As I climbed the steps to the lectern, I whispered a prayer: “Lord, let your light shine through me.”
    The speech at the cathedral was the most important of my young presidency. I had told my speechwriters—Mike Gerson, John McConnell , and Matthew Scully —that I wanted to accomplish three objectives: mourn the loss of life, remind people there was a loving God, and make clear that those who attacked our nation would face justice.

    With my speechwriters (
from left
) Dan Bartlett, Mike Gerson, Matthew Scully, and John McConnell.
White House/Eric Draper
    “We are here in the middle hour of our grief,” I began. “So many have suffered so great a loss,