The Trump administration on Friday declassified pages of documents outlining what the Clinton and Bush administrations knew about Al Qaeda threats ahead of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.
The more than 100 pages are parts of the presidential daily brief, a top-secret daily summary of intelligence, analysis, and national security threats delivered to the president. They date from February 1998 to September 2001 during the end of President Bill Clinton’s term and the beginning of George W. Bush’s presidency.
The documents are heavily redacted but show US intelligence was aware that Osama bin Laden called for an attack in the United States as early as May 1998, during Clinton’s presidency.
“We have received four reports from highly questionable sources suggesting Usama Bin Ladin is making plans to conduct an attack in the United States,” a document states in July 1998.
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Analysts believed bin Laden was mulling an attack on a shopping mall in Washington DC or plotting a kidnapping but the name of the target is redacted.
The report also noted: “We have little information on Bin Ladin’s operatives in the US.”
The first mention of an airline hijacking in America comes in December 1998: “Bin Ladin and his allies are preparing for attacks in the US, including an aircraft hijacking to obtain the release” of the man known as “the blind sheik” and some of his associates.
Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, a blind Egyptian, was serving a life sentence in North Carolina tied to the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. He ultimately died in an American prison in February 2017.
The document notes Al Qaeda operatives had managed to evade security checks at an unnamed New York airport. “The same source late last month said that Bin Ladin might implement plans to hijack a US 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.”
“Some members of the Bin Ladin network have received hijack training, according to various sources, but no group directly tied to Bin Ladin’s al-Qa’ida organization has ever carried out an aircraft hijacking,” it reads.
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Officials were also worried bin Laden had obtained a nuclear weapon — perhaps from Russia — before ultimately concluding he did not have one in his possession. Still they feared the Al Qaeda leader could use chemical or biological weapons.
“If Bin Ladin succeeded in buying a chemical or biological weapon, his past behavior and statements indicate he would have no reservations about using it and he would begin searching for a suitable target,” the documents note in February 1999.
Much of the concern is focused on whether bin Laden will obtain a bomb, noting his use of them previously, such as the attacks on the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in 1998.
And while they note bin Laden was interested in attacking American interesting, the exact target — either in the US or US interests abroad — was unclear.
In March 2000, there was concern bin Laden would attack a highly-visible target, such as the Statue of Liberty or Eiffel Tower.
During Bush’s presidency, in August 2001— a month before the September 11th attacks — the brief warns that bin Ladin is “Determined To Strike in US.”
“After US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington,” the document states.
An FBI investigation “indicates 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.”
