Newly declassified documents reveal that the CIA had identified the possibility of al-Qaeda using an "explosive-packed airplane into a U.S. city" as a threat years before the September 11, 2001 attacks. The CIA released 71 daily presidential briefs, spanning from early 1998 to the day after the attacks, with most of the documents never having been seen by the public before.
These previously secret analyses, typically classified for decades, show an increasing alarm within U.S. intelligence regarding the al-Qaeda network and its leader, Osama bin Laden. The newly public documents echo findings from the official commission that investigated the 9/11 attacks, indicating that U.S. intelligence had repeatedly warned of a potential attack, though specific details and the full scale remained unclear.
One briefing, dated September 10, 1998, noted that bin Laden's preferred target location for a strike was within the United States, with Washington D.C. identified as a prime target. The document explicitly stated the group "may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a U.S. city."
While the 2004 9/11 Commission Report had previously mentioned intelligence beliefs about al-Qaeda considering the use of an airplane, it was unclear whether then-President Bill Clinton had received this specific warning. Bin Laden and al-Qaeda were already familiar to U.S. intelligence by 1998, particularly after the August 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people and led to U.S. retaliatory strikes in Afghanistan and Sudan.
A document from August 28, 1998, just eight days after the U.S. retaliation, warned that al-Qaeda remained intact and that bin Laden was actively "considering attacks in the U.S."
Among the released documents is a brief from September 12, 2001, the day after the attacks. This report indicated that "mounting evidence" suggested extremists in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf were aware the attack had been imminent. A partially redacted sentence in the document stated that the plot was "widely known" among extremists, and that bin Laden may have relocated to Kabul to avoid conflict with the Taliban rulers over the plan.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe stated in a release that "Generations of C.I.A. officers have since dedicated their careers to securing justice for our fallen Americans and ensuring Al Qaeda would never again harm our country." He added, "Twenty-five years ago, the 9/11 attacks struck a blow to our nation, but they did not break us."