CIA Releases Pre-9/11 Daily Briefs on Bin Laden, al-Qaida

A newly declassified collection of presidential intelligence briefings released Friday, marking 25 years since the Sept. 11 attacks, sheds fresh light on what U.S. officials knew about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida before the coordinated hijackings. The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people and permanently reshaped America’s national security landscape.

The records show intelligence analysts monitoring bin Laden’s travel, networks and sources of support while repeatedly assessing potential threats against American interests and targets.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe called the disclosure “an act of exceptional transparency,” describing it as the agency’s largest-ever release of declassified Presidential Daily Briefs. The closely held reports are compiled by the U.S. intelligence community for the country’s highest-ranking government leaders.

Spanning from 1998 through the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the materials include a February 1998 briefing for President Bill Clinton titled “Terrorists seeking WMD capability,” which referenced “bin Ladin and other Islamic extremists.” A Sept. 12, 2001, assessment cited a source who said the operation had been in the works for two years and that the U.S. Capitol was among its intended targets.

One briefing written only weeks before the attacks said al-Qaida’s adaptable decision-making process and expansive view of legitimate targets allowed the organization to revise its plans as circumstances changed.

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In response to questions about the CIA release, the White House pointed to a separate document release by the National Archives on Friday. That collection includes interviews with Clinton- and Bush-era national security officials and originated with the independent commission that investigated the Sept. 11 attacks between 2002 and 2004.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP