ABSTRACT
Prosecution of the counterterrorism wars involved the introduction of highly controversial policies and programs: "enhanced interrogation" of captured terrorist suspects, indefinite detention of "enemy combatants", and a major US Government detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, warrantless domestic surveillance, and military commissions to conduct trials of detainees. An earlier counterterrorism public diplomacy campaign was launched by Secretary of State George Shultz following the bombing of Marine Barracks and US embassy in Lebanon in 1983 but it later faded away under Secretary of State James Baker. The terrorism challenge after 9/11 posed new problems in confronting terrorists and a fundamental management question for the George W. Bush administration: how to manage the terrorist threat. The 9/11 Commission Report set the stage for change and reform in the counterterrorism area. Major recommendations included calling on Congress to consolidate its many committees and subcommittees dealing with terrorism issues into a joint congressional committee or single committees in both the Senate and the House.
