CIA drops dozens of declassified documents on bin Laden and al-Qaeda
The CIA has declassified a large collection of presidential daily briefings from the period leading up to the September 11, 2001, attacks. The documents reveal that intelligence agencies were tracking Osama bin Laden's movements and potential threats to US soil years before the tragedy.
Why it matters
This release provides historical transparency regarding the US government's pre-9/11 intelligence capabilities and the evolution of the war on terror.
A briefer wrote to then-President Clinton that bin Laden’s ‘preferred option is to strike the US on its own soil in Washington’, and that al-Qaeda ‘may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a US city’.
x whatsapp-stroke copylink google Add Al Jazeera on Google info United Airlines Flight 175 approaches the south tower of the World Trade Center as smoke billows from the north tower in lower Manhattan, New York, on September 11, 2001 [File: Seth McAllister/AFP] By Al Jazeera Staff and The Associated Press Published On 12 Sep 2026 12 Sep 2026 Several dozen presidential briefing documents declassified on the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks detail intelligence government officials had gathered about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda leading up to the hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people and upended the United States’ national security.
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