<P> General Tommy Franks's autobiography states that, while the Afghanistan operation was only a few months old, he was told by Donald Rumsfeld on November 27, 2001 that President G.W. Bush "...wants us to look at options for Iraq . What is the status of your planning...." In his meeting notes, Rumsfeld outlined strategic objectives, notably to "focus on WMD ." Rumsfeld demanded Franks--then lead general in Afghanistan coordinating Army, Navy, Airforce and the CIA--provide Rumsfeld with updated Iraq invasion plans within a week . Franks writes, "At the time I was working with...operations staff on air support for Afghan units pushing into the spin mountains around Tora Bora ." Id . The Tora Bora fortress was where intelligence placed Bin Laden; December 7, 2001, after Bin Laden was sighted near Tora Bora, CIA operative Gary Berntsen, made repeated requests for 800 rangers to block bin Laden's escape but they were refused . Shortly after Christmas, General Franks (having toured Afghanistan shortly before Christmas) was called to Texas to meet President Bush . President Bush briefly asked about Afghanistan--and whether Bin Laden had been killed . General Franks then fully briefed Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney and the other members of the Cabinet on plans for Desert Storm II, another Iraq invasion, which he had been updating since the end of November . </P> <P> Beginning at his January 29, 2002 State of the Union address, President Bush began publicly focusing attention on Iraq, which he labeled as part of an "axis of evil" allied with terrorists and posing "a grave and growing danger" to U.S. interests through possession of "weapons of mass destruction". In the later half of 2002, Central Intelligence Agency reports requested by the Administration contained assertions that Saddam Hussein was intent on reconstituting nuclear weapons programs, had not properly accounted for Iraqi biological weapons and chemical weapons material in violation of UN sanctions, and that some Iraqi missiles had a range greater than allowed by the UN sanctions . In particular, the CIA drew together an October 1, 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction, pulling together the intelligence, estimations, opinions and judgments of 16 different U.S. intelligence services, including dissenting views or challenges to various assertions . Several versions of this report were or have been produced with varying levels of declassification, inclusion of dissenting opinions, and completeness . President Bush received a one - page summary of the National Intelligence Estimate . The question of whether the Bush Administration manipulated or exaggerated the threat and evidence of Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction capabilities or attempted to create a tie between Sadaam Hussein and the al Qaeda terrorists who carried out the September 11, 2001 attacks would eventually become a major point of criticism and controversy for the President . </P>

Who was president when the iraq war started