What did US intelligence know before the 9/11 attacks?
The CIA has declassified 71 presidential daily briefs from 1998 to 2001, revealing the warnings US leaders received regarding Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda prior to the 9/11 attacks. The documents provide a detailed paper trail of intelligence gathering, including specific threats of airplane hijackings.
Why it matters
This release offers historical transparency into the intelligence failures and warnings that preceded the most significant terrorist attack in modern US history.
The CIA have declassified documents showing US presidents were warned about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda before 9/11.
x whatsapp-stroke copylink google Add Al Jazeera on Google info Flowers adorn a reflecting pool during a memorial on the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, in New York, US, September 11, 2026 [Adam Gray/Reuters] By Nils Adler Published On 12 Sep 2026 12 Sep 2026 Twenty-five years after the September 11 attacks, the CIA has released a series of presidential briefing documents showing what United States leaders had been told about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda in the years before the plane hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe called the release of the documents “an act of exceptional transparency”. This is the agency’s largest-ever release of presidential daily briefs, the classified intelligence summaries written for the president and his most senior officials.
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