As Americans paused to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks on Friday, newly declassified documents offered a striking look at warnings U.S. intelligence officials were receiving years before hijacked planes struck the World Trade Center and Pentagon. One intelligence brief from September 1998 said Osama bin Laden's “preferred option is to strike the US on its own soil in Washington” and raised the possibility that al-Qaeda “may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a US city.” The warning was among 71 President's Daily Brief products declassified and released by the CIA on Friday, offering a new window into intelligence about bin Laden and al-Qaeda in the years before September 11. CIA Director John Ratcliffe called the disclosure an “act of exceptional transparency” and said the documents represented the agency's single largest release of declassified presidential daily briefs.
The documents show concerns about attacks inside the United States and the possible use of aircraft emerging years before September 11. In July 1998, intelligence officials wrote that it was “plausible that Bin Ladin places a high priority on conducting attacks in the United States” and noted his “interest in conducting attacks with chemical and biological agents.” By December, another brief discussed potential hijackings. It said conspirators “had evaded security checks during a recent trial run at an unidentified New York airport” and that “some members of the Bin Ladin network have received hijack training.” Other documents detail bin Laden's pursuit of materials for making “dirty bombs,” conventional weapons infused with radioactive material.
By June 1999, intelligence officials said his operatives had conducted experiments with explosives to “increase their energy output.” Briefs prepared for President George W. Bush in early 2001 also focused in part on bin Laden's “experimentation by crude means to make and deploy biological agents.” Warnings continued as September 11 approached. A report a month before the attacks said bin Laden remained committed “to conduct terrorist attacks in the US” and noted that previous al-Qaeda attacks demonstrated “that he prepares operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks.” The August 2001 report also cited “suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks,” including surveillance of federal buildings in New York.
It said the FBI was conducting approximately 70 investigations in the United States that it considered related to bin Laden. The newly released documents do not show that U.S. officials knew of the specific September 11 plot before it occurred. Many of the documents were redacted to conceal sources' names and other identifying information.
The reported that the files did not appear to break new ground on the planning of the attacks or U.S. officials' understanding of how they had unfolded. Nearly 3,000 people were killed on September 11, 2001, when 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial aircraft, striking the World Trade Center and Pentagon. A fourth plane, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers and crew fought back.
The collection also includes a September 12, 2001, report in which a source indicated the attacks had been planned for two years and had also targeted the U.S. Capitol, according to AP. Former President George W.
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