You've apparently seen more about the book than I have. If I'm going to a meeting like this, and I want to influence the action, I'm going to say, "And here's what I recommend:..." At the minimum, I'm going to be prepared to answer the question, "And what are your recommendations?" What were the CIA Directors recommendations to "kick start the government" to deal with this threat that the Director feared?
Let me fix that:
"The CIA had already done its due diligence." /sarc
"What were the CIA Directors recommendations to "kick start the government" to deal with this threat that the Director feared?"
It's all a little vague isn't it?
In his Fictional Reporting (tm), Woodward can usually capture details such as "a drop of sweat licked at his eyebrow", or "While sitting at the Cabinet meeting, Powell was thinking 'What sort of mahogony is this table made from?', while Rumsfeld was privately musing on the virtues of aluminum siding for his new getaway home in Easton, Maryland.'"
Yet from this crucial meeting, we aren't told what the threat signals actually were, how they were presented to Rice, what action steps were suggested, or what the milestones for further notification might be.
I suppose becuase the meeting was "classified", and you know what that means in DC.