From the transcript of her April 8, 2004 appearance before the 9/11 Commission:
RICE: ... Dick Clarke never asked me to brief the president on counterterrorism. He did brief the president later on cybersecurity, in July, but he, to my recollection, never asked.
And my senior directors have an open door to come and say, "I think the president needs to do this. I think the president needs to do that. He needs to make this phone call. He needs to hear this briefing." It's not hard to get done.
Ms. Rice on the Counterterrorism Security Group:
RICE: For the essential crisis-management task, we depended on the Counterterrorism Security Group, chaired by Dick Clarke, to be the interagency nerve center. The CSG consisted of senior counterterrorism experts from the CIA, the FBI, the Department of Justice, the Defense Department -- including the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- the State Department and the Secret Service.
The CSG had met regularly for many years, and its members had worked through numerous periods of heightened threat activity. As threat information increased, the CSG met more frequently, sometimes daily, to review and analyze the threat reporting and to coordinate actions in response.
CSG members also had ready access to their Cabinet secretaries and could raise any concerns that they had at the highest levels.
Emphasis added; again, the presumption is that the lower levels willl function properly.
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