CIA releases 1998 warning of possible Al-Qaeda aircraft attack in the US
The US CIA has declassified documents showing that in September 1998, American intelligence warned the administration of then-President Bill Clinton about a possible attack by Osama bin Laden on the United States using an aircraft loaded with explosives. As the Jerusalem Post reports, intelligence indicated that such an aircraft could have been directed at a US city.
Document for US leadership
The document dated September 10, 1998, was titled “Bin Laden’s Location and Intentions.” It was prepared for senior administration officials who had access to the President’s Daily Brief, one of the most highly classified US intelligence documents.
The document did not contain conclusive information about the method of carrying out the attack or its location. At the same time, it stated that bin Laden’s focus had shifted to Washington. It is unknown whether Clinton himself read the document or received a separate briefing on its contents.
Release of 71 documents
The 1998 warning was included in a collection of 71 documents that the CIA released ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Sixty-nine of these documents became public for the first time. They show that in the years before the attacks, US intelligence agencies repeatedly informed senior officials about the intentions of bin Laden and Al-Qaeda to strike inside the United States.
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In 2001 alone, bin Laden was mentioned in at least 18 presidential intelligence briefings. One of them, delivered to President George W. Bush on August 6, 2001, was titled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US.” It contained no operational information identifying the four planes, targets, or timing of the attack.
The released 1998 document also does not mean that intelligence knew in advance about the specific plan to hijack planes on September 11, 2001. The 9/11 Commission concluded that the failure was not the responsibility of a single agency: among the factors, it cited insufficient coordination, a “lack of imagination,” and a shortage of operational information to disrupt the plan. At that time, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four passenger planes, and nearly 3,000 people were killed.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe called the new publication the largest release in history of CIA analytical materials related to the September 11 attacks.
