CIA Releases 71 Secret Documents on Bin Laden
The CIA has released 71 documents from before the September 11 attacks, including a warning that Bin Laden considered flying a plane loaded with explosives into a US city.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe released 71 documents on September 11, 2026, drawn from the President’s Daily Brief, the classified analysis prepared for the US president every day. It is the largest release of intelligence tied to the September 11 attacks since the 2004 report of the 9/11 Commission, and the agency timed the release to the 25th anniversary of the attacks.
In brief:
- The collection spans the period from February 13, 1998 to September 12, 2001
- Seventy of the documents predate the attacks, one was written a day after
- Two documents in the collection had already surfaced through the work of the 9/11 Commission
- The release totals more than 100 pages of previously classified analysis
The collection runs to more than 100 pages of analysis that had never before been made public. Seventy of the documents were written before the attacks, and one was drafted the following day, on September 12, 2001. Two documents in the set had already been made public through the work of the 9/11 Commission, whose 2004 report had until now stood as the largest release of this kind of material.
Director Ratcliffe described the release in these words:
“In an act of extraordinary transparency, we honor the memory of those we lost that tragic Tuesday by declassifying 71 documents.”
Speaking to CBS News, he called it “the single largest release of CIA analysis related to 9/11 to date,” adding that generations of agency officers “have since dedicated their careers to seeing that justice is done.” The release is part of President Donald Trump’s transparency initiative.
What did the CIA know about Bin Laden as early as 1998?
The oldest document in the collection, from February 1998, states that Osama bin Laden had issued a fatwa calling on all Muslims to attack American interests and civilians worldwide until the United States withdrew from the Middle East. A second report from the same month describes Bin Laden as controlling legitimate businesses, commercial ties, and a financial network he could draw on to acquire weapons.
After the bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998, the CIA recorded a sharp spike in threats around the world. One report from that fall counts nearly 300 threats observed globally in the aftermath of those attacks. Sources differ on the document’s exact date: CBS News reports the memo was written on September 10, 1998, while Valley News Live dates the same memo to September 11, 1998. Whatever the exact date, the document states that Bin Laden was weighing two options, striking American soil directly in Washington, or having the same group responsible for the Africa bombings fly a plane loaded with explosives into an American city.
A separate document, drafted on December 4, 1998 and titled “Bin Ladin Preparing To Hijack US Aircraft and Other Attacks,” describes an entirely different plan: a plane hijacking. According to that report, a group linked to Egyptian Islamic Jihad had finished preparing an operation inside the United States on Bin Laden’s behalf, and a senior operative was to meet with associates in America to weigh options, including hijacking a plane to secure the release of prisoners, among them Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman. One source cited in the document claims that two members of the operational team had evaded a security check during a test run at an unnamed New York airport.
Ressam, the Los Angeles airport, and warnings from the summer of 2001
A report dated December 30, 1999 references Ahmed Ressam, arrested that month while trying to smuggle bomb-making material into the United States as part of a plan to attack Los Angeles International Airport. Nearly two years later, on July 24, 2001, the CIA reported that an expected imminent operation backed by Bin Laden had been postponed, but that preparations for other attacks in the near future could still be underway.
The last warning issued before the attacks is dated August 6, 2001 and titled “Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US.” It references patterns of suspicious activity inside the country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other kinds of attacks. According to CBS News, 18 documents from the Bush administration’s final weeks before the attacks remain unreleased, meaning part of that year’s analysis is still classified.
The final document in the collection is dated September 12, 2001, the day after the attacks. It is a situation report with the latest findings on Bin Laden’s role in the attacks, along with notes on tensions within the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan.
