Former National Security Adviser prepared remarks before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4593926
FBI was not focused as sharply on counterterrorism as the CIA. The overall impression that the Bureau conveyed to us, until the very end of our time in office, was that al Qaeda had a limited capacity to operate in the U.S. and that its presence here was under surveillance. The stream of threat information we received each day pointed repeatedly to attacks on U.S. interests abroad, not at home. And because that was the daily threat picture, that was where we focused most of our attention. Nonetheless, when presented with specific domestic threats - such as during the Millennium period - we protected the homeland.
Finally, you asked about the transition. When the Clinton administration ended, we did our best to alert the incoming team to the terrorist threat in general and the al Qaeda threat specifically. During the transition, Bush administration officials received intensive briefings on terrorism. As the press has reported, I told my successor Condoleezza Rice that she would be spending more time on terrorism and bin Laden than any other issue.