CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the documents were the agency’s single largest release of declassified presidential daily briefs. File
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On the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the U.S. government declassified dozens of presidential briefing documents, detailing intelligence gathered about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda leading up to the hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people and upended American national security.
The documents illustrate security analysts’ tracking of Laden’s movements and support system, as well as concerns about possible threats to U.S. targets.
Proclaiming “an act of exceptional transparency,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the documents were the agency’s single largest release of declassified presidential daily briefs — the highly classified briefing prepared by the nation’s intelligence community for the government’s most senior leaders.
The hours that changed history
The documents range from a February 1998 file — prepared for then-President Bill Clinton — entitled “Terrorists seeking WMD capability” and mentioning “bin Ladin and other Islamic extremists” to a Sept. 12, 2001, report in which a source indicated the attacks had been planned for two years and had also targeted the U.S. Capitol.
Another, from just weeks before the attacks, details how al-Qaeda’s “flexible operational decision making and broad definition of acceptable targets enable the group to adjust plans to changing conditions.” Asked for comment on the release, the White House noted the release of another batch of documents by the National Archives, is also on Friday. That batch, including interviews with national security officials in the Clinton and Bush administrations, was a product of the commission that probed the attacks from 2002 to 2004.
Published – September 12, 2026 04:30 am IST
