The Trump administration released 71 Presidential Daily Briefs on Friday detailing intelligence warnings about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, renewing scrutiny of what the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations knew in the years leading up to the assault.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe announced the release on the 25th anniversary of the attacks, saying the documents were being made public to honor those killed on 9/11. The records include intelligence supplied to both Clinton and Bush about possible attacks inside the US.
The files show that officials had received reports involving possible aircraft hijackings, attacks in Washington and indications that bin Laden’s network had operatives or supporters inside the country.
One of the starkest briefings was delivered to Clinton on Dec. 4, 1998, under the title “Bin Ladin Preparing To Hijack US Aircraft and Other Attacks.”
The intelligence said reporting indicated bin Laden and his allies were preparing attacks inside the US, including a potential aircraft hijacking. It also described information suggesting members of an operational team had conducted a trial run through security at an unidentified New York airport.
That particular 1998 briefing is not entirely new to the public. It was previously declassified at the request of the 9/11 Commission and has appeared in government records for years, though it is among the material highlighted again in Friday’s broader release.
Another 1998 briefing cited intelligence that bin Laden preferred striking the US on its own soil and included a report about the possible use of an aircraft packed with explosives against an American city.
The records also demonstrate that intelligence varied substantially in reliability. Some reports carried explicit warnings from analysts that their sources were questionable or unverified, complicating efforts to determine which threats were credible.
By 2000, officials were examining reports involving potential symbolic American targets, including the Statue of Liberty, according to the newly released collection.
The warnings continued after Bush entered office in January 2001.
The best-known example remains the Aug. 6, 2001, Presidential Daily Brief titled “Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US,” which became one of the central pieces of evidence examined by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission after the attacks.
That briefing told Bush that Al Qaeda members — including some US citizens — had lived in or traveled through the country and that the terrorist organization apparently maintained a support structure capable of assisting attacks.
It also cited FBI information about “patterns of suspicious activity” consistent with preparations for hijackings or other attacks, including surveillance of federal buildings in New York.
The 9/11 Commission later concluded that the US government had received repeated warnings about Al Qaeda but lacked the specific intelligence needed to uncover the complete Sept. 11 plot in advance.
The intelligence did not identify the World Trade Center and Pentagon as the eventual targets, nor did it provide officials with the operational details of the four-aircraft attack that ultimately unfolded.
Friday’s release nevertheless puts renewed attention on the volume of intelligence circulating at senior levels of government before the attacks.
Some briefings also addressed fears that bin Laden was attempting to obtain chemical or biological weapons, with analysts warning that his previous statements suggested he would be willing to use such weapons if he acquired them.
The records arrive as former Bush national security adviser Condoleezza Rice publicly reflected on the government’s failure to recognize the threat in time.
“Those of us in authority on that day did not see the nature of the danger in time to prevent the attack of 9/11,” Rice said during the 25th anniversary commemorations, expressing what she called deep personal remorse to the families of those killed.
Bush also spoke publicly ahead of the anniversary, warning Americans against forgetting the national security lessons of Sept. 11 and recalling the decisions his administration faced immediately after the attacks.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed when Al Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airplanes on Sept. 11, 2001, crashing two into New York’s World Trade Center, another into the Pentagon and a fourth into a Pennsylvania field after passengers fought back.
The newly released collection does not establish that Clinton, Bush or their administrations knew about the specific Sept. 11 operation beforehand.
It does, however, provide additional detail about the repeated warnings reaching the highest levels of government concerning bin Laden, hijacking threats and potential attacks inside the US before the deadliest terrorist attack in American history, per Trending Politics.
