CIA Declassifies Presidential Briefs on bin Laden Ahead of 9/11 Anniversary

The CIA on Friday declassified several dozen presidential daily briefs concerning Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida, releasing the documents on the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people and reshaped American national security policy.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe described the move as "an act of exceptional transparency," calling it the agency's single largest release of presidential daily briefs — the highly classified intelligence summaries prepared for the country's most senior leaders.

The documents trace how analysts followed bin Laden's movements and support networks, along with their concerns about possible threats to U.S. targets. The earliest file in the release, prepared for then-President Bill Clinton in February 1998, is titled "Terrorists seeking WMD capability" and refers to "bin Ladin and other Islamic extremists."

The latest document is dated Sept. 12, 2001, the day after the attacks. In it, a source indicated the plot had been planned over two years and had also targeted the U.S. Capitol.

Another brief, written just weeks before the hijackings, notes that al-Qaida's "flexible operational decision making and broad definition of acceptable targets enable the group to adjust plans to changing conditions."

Asked about the release, the White House pointed to a separate batch of documents made public the same day by the National Archives. That collection, which includes interviews with national security officials from the Clinton and Bush administrations, stems from the commission that investigated the attacks between 2002 and 2004.