Mfr Nara- T3- Cohen Group- Bodner James- 3-1-04- 00065

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.

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