Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, the CIA has released 71 presidential daily briefs covering February 1998 to September 12, 2001, comprising 101 pages of classified intelligence summaries prepared for the president and senior officials. The collection, described by CIA Director John Ratcliffe as an act of exceptional transparency, documents how US intelligence tracked Osama bin Laden's movements, financing, networks, and intentions during the years before nearly 3,000 people were killed in plane hijackings on September 11, 2001.
CIA releases largest-ever collection of pre-9/11 presidential intelligence briefs as 25th anniversary marked
Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, the CIA has released 71 presidential daily briefs covering February 1998 to September 12, 2001, comprising 101 pages of classified intelligence summaries prepared for the president and senior officials. The collection, described by CIA Director John Ratcliffe as an act of exceptional transparency, documents how US intelligence tracked Osama bin Laden's movements, financing, networks, and intentions during the years before nearly 3,000 people were killed in plane hijackings on September 11, 2001.
The released briefs show that US intelligence agencies possessed considerable information about al-Qaeda well before the attacks. Analysts tracked bin Laden's international and domestic networks, his pursuit of unconventional weapons including chemical, biological, and radiological materials, and repeated warnings of his intention to strike within the United States. An April 1998 brief noted the Taliban's reluctance to hand bin Laden over, describing him as their guest and referencing gratitude for his assistance during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
Some warnings in the documents were specific in their wording. In September 1998, three years before the attacks, intelligence analysts recorded bin Laden's stated preference to strike the US in Washington. By June 1999, briefs included reports that bin Laden's operatives had experimented with explosives as part of a pursuit of dirty bombs. The frequency of warnings increased after George W. Bush took office as president in 2001, with summer briefings using increasingly alarming language.
The briefs contain early indications that aircraft could be used as weapons. A September 10, 1998 brief noted that the group behind that summer's East Africa US embassy bombings "may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a US city." A December 4, 1998 brief, titled "Bin Laden Preparing To Hijack US Aircraft and Other Attacks," described conspirators who had evaded security checks at an unidentified New York airport and noted that some members of bin Laden's network had received hijack training.
According to Al Jazeera, the newly released material does not prove the US government knew 9/11 was coming, and there is no evidence to support conspiracy theories about government involvement or prior knowledge of the attacks. The documents reinforce the explanation that intelligence agencies had many pieces of the puzzle but failed to assemble them into a clear picture in time. Some of the briefs have been made public previously, including the August 6, 2001 brief titled "Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US," which was declassified in 2004 at the 9/11 Commission's request.
On the 25th anniversary, former President George W. Bush reflected on the attacks and their lessons during a conversation with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at his presidential library in Dallas. Bush recalled being at an elementary school when the attacks occurred and said he became a wartime president in that moment. He emphasized that the job of the president and country was to rally the nation and protect its people. Bush and Rice recalled that all planes were ordered to land or face being shot down, and described a tense moment in which officials were uncertain whether Flight 93 had been shot down by US military before it crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers attempted to wrest control from hijackers.
- Whether any current US officials or intelligence leadership have commented on the significance or implications of the released documents beyond CIA Director Ratcliffe's transparency statement.
- Details about specific redactions in the documents and what information remains classified.
- Any assessment from independent terrorism experts or historians regarding what the documents reveal about intelligence failures or successes.
- Statements from families of 9/11 victims regarding their views on the document release.
- Details about how the specific 71 briefs were selected from a larger body of presidential daily briefs for release.
- Al Jazeera English — original — by Nils Adler
- The Jerusalem Post — by ARIELLA ROITMAN
Read the original at Al Jazeera English