HOW ROOT SAMSUNG NOTE N7000   ICS ROM  4.0.4 

Using CWM.zip (temporary/Touch recovery)method to root is said to be unsafe by entropy, and till safe release don't use it
Read This http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1810954

So present option for rooting is - You can select any of one.
NEW 20 Aug2012

1.Rooting with stock recovery - Thanx to Entropy who direct this way,as well always looking for safety measures for us, Chainfire for creating great tool SuperSu (and many more), Phil3759 as files,scripts derived from his Thread and Linus Yang for Busybox.
You can have two choice to root device from recovery
1A.Root + safe kernel + advance recovery.
Here this will not just root your device but also add safe kernel (patched for mmc erase cap command) so you can safely wipe your device. as well gives you advanced recovery with it you can flash flashable zip files, nandroid backup/restore and more.
All credit goes to Phil3759 for awesome work.
Visit this thread
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1901191
And download kernel in zip format according ROM you are having on device.
-Copy downloaded file to Ext SD card to root directory
-Reboot into recovery (vol up+Home+power)
-Select install(update) zip from ext SD card
-select '[your downloaded kerenel].zip' which you have copied to Ext card above
-Reboot device
Now you will have Root + safe kernel

1B.If you want just Root but not kernel, follow this

- Download Root_SuperSu 0.95
-Copy downloaded file to Ext SD card.
-Reboot into recovery (vol up+Home+power)
-Select install zip from ext SD card
-select 'root_SuperSU-*.zip' which you have copied to Ext card above
-Reboot device
-You can see superSU on appl drawer. open it and update.
-Now This will give you only SuperSU not busybox, though application which doesn't depends on system busybox will still works.e.g.Titanium Backup.
-To get full Root+busybox, Download Root_busybox *.zip
-Copy Root_busybox* only to Ext SD card
-Reboot into recovery, Select Install zip from Ext SD card. select Root_busybox* .zip and Flash.
-Done !