The CIA has released dozens of previously classified presidential briefings detailing US intelligence on Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaida before the September 11 attacks.
The documents were declassified pn Friday to mark the 25th anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, according to The Associated Press.
The files show intelligence officials tracking bin Laden’s network, finances and potential plans to attack US targets as early as 1998.
A September 1998 briefing warned bin Laden’s “preferred option is to strike the US on its own soil in Washington,” adding that al-Qaida “may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a US city.”
Another briefing from December 1998 said some members of bin Laden’s network had received hijacking training and conspirators “had evaded security checks during a recent trial run at an unidentified New York airport.”
By August 2001, intelligence officials reported “suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.”
The FBI was also conducting about 70 investigations considered related to bin Laden.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe called the disclosure “an act of exceptional transparency” and said it was the agency’s largest-ever release of declassified presidential daily briefs.
