Marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, the Trump administration has declassified a collection of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) files confirming that former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were both made aware of potential Al Qaeda schemes to attack the U.S. using explosive-packed aircraft beforehand.
On Friday, through the newly released 71 documents, it was revealed that Clinton and Bush separately received distinct, high-level briefings during their respective terms in office regarding threats to the homeland.
In a Presidential Daily Briefing provided to President Clinton on September 10, 1998, intelligence officials reported that the Al Qaeda leader intended to strike on U.S. soil. The brief noted intelligence agencies “had received four reports from highly questionable sources suggesting Usama [sic] Bin Ladin is making plans to conduct an attack in the United States.”
“Bin Ladin late last month said his preferred option is to strike the U.S. on its own soil in Washington,” the document warned, adding that “the same group responsible for the [U.S. Embassy] bombings in Africa [Kenya and Tanzania] may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a U.S. city.”
Just months later, Clinton’s December 4, 1998 Presidential Daily Briefing included an item explicitly titled, “Bin Ladin [sic] Preparing To Hijack U.S. Aircraft.”
The report highlighted that “some members of the Bin Ladin network have received hijack training” and cautioned that “Bin Ladin could be weighing other types of operations against U.S. aircraft.”
“Bin Ladin might implement plans to hijack a U.S. aircraft before the beginning of Ramadan on 20 December and that two members of the operational team had evaded security checks during a recent trial run at an unidentified New York airport.”
By February 11, 2000, presidential intelligence aides reported that authorities had seized a manifesto outlining possible targets “such as the Statue of Liberty.”
Similar warnings followed into the next administration. On July 25, 2001, President Bush was provided a file titled, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.”
“Al-Qa’ida [sic] members-including some who are U.S. citizens—have resided in or traveled to the U.S. for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks,” the memo warned.
“After U.S. missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington,” the document stated, further noting the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had uncovered “patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.”
The documents were released by the Trump administration as part of President Donald Trump’s initiative to foster better transparency between the U.S. government and the American public. The move follows the previous release of long-awaited secret files concerning the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr.
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