Osama bin Laden (File photo)
The CIA on Friday released 71 intelligence reports prepared for the President’s Daily Brief in the years before and immediately after the 9/11 attacks, offering a detailed chronology of what US intelligence knew about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida as their threat evolved. A July 1998 intelligence report said Bin Laden was considering attacks in the US and noted that some of his followers had indicated a desire to bring the conflict to American soil. An assessment from February 1998 said he and other Islamic extremists had agreed to procure chemical, biological and nuclear substances from open markets, while noting that his financial network could assist such efforts.
On September 10, 1998, a CIA assessment said Bin Laden’s “preferred option” was to strike the US on its own soil in Washington. It also said the same group responsible for the bombings of US embassies in Africa “may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a US city”. By December that year, another CIA assessment said Bin Laden and his allies were preparing attacks in the US, including a possible aircraft hijacking.
The reports also tracked Bin Laden’s ambitions beyond conventional attacks.
It noted that members of the network had received hijacking training, although no group directly tied to al-Qaida had previously carried out an aircraft hijacking.
A 1998 assessment said Taliban leader Mullah Omar defended Bin Laden’s continued presence in Afghanistan despite pressure to rein him in, while the Taliban’s dependence on narcotics revenues and financial support from Bin Laden complicated efforts to isolate him. At the same time, the CIA was following the relationship between Bin Laden and Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers.
A July 2001 report said a Bin Laden operation expected to be imminent had been postponed, but preparations for other attacks could still be underway. By August 28, a CIA assessment described al-Qaida’s operations as flexible and difficult to detect, noting that cells could choose their own timing and targets and that the organisation’s compartmentalised structure could limit what its leadership communicated. The report had previously been declassified in 2004 following a request from the 9/11 Commission.
The August 6, 2001 President’s Daily Brief, titled “Bin Laden Determined To Strike in US”, was also among the documents released.