Blue sky memo
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The Blue sky memo was a document authored by the
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
(CIA). The premise of the memo was to describe actions the CIA should undertake if it did not have to operate under legal, financial, and political restrictions (that is to say, if the "sky were blue"). The memorandum was inspired by the
USS Cole bombing The USS ''Cole'' bombing was a suicide attack by the terrorist group al-Qaeda against , a guided missile destroyer of the United States Navy, on 12 October 2000, while she was being refueled in Yemen's Aden harbor. Seventeen U.S. Navy sail ...
, and written in the final weeks of the
Clinton administration Bill Clinton's tenure as the 42nd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1993, and ended on January 20, 2001. Clinton, a Democrat from Arkansas, took office following a decisive election victory over ...
. It was delivered to Richard A. Clarke on December 29, 2000. According to the
9/11 Commission Report ''The 9/11 Commission Report'' (officially the ''Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States)'' is the official report into the events leading up to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It was prepa ...
:
No action was taken on these ideas in the few remaining weeks of the Clinton administration. ational Security Adviser SandyBerger did not recall seeing or being briefed on the Blue Sky memo. Nor was the memo discussed during the transition with incoming top Bush administration officials. IA Director GeorgeTenet and his deputy told us they pressed these ideas as options after the new administration took office.
9/11 Commission Report ''The 9/11 Commission Report'' (officially the ''Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States)'' is the official report into the events leading up to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. It was prepa ...
, Chapter 6. ( Wikisource text)


References

Memoranda Central Intelligence Agency {{US-gov-stub