Recently released documents from the Trump administration reveal that former presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush received numerous alerts about Usama bin Laden and his terror organization plotting to hijack large commercial flights to launch attacks on the United States. These details come from classified files, including presidential daily briefs (PDBs) and intelligence memos from the CIA.
The records indicate that operatives had bypassed security checks in a trial run at an undisclosed New York airport, which occurred three years prior to the tragic events of 9/11 when al Qaeda terrorists attacked the World Trade Center. The attackers intended to use the hijacked planes as leverage to negotiate the release of imprisoned extremists such as Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman and Ramzi Yousef.
A December 4, 1998, PDB highlighted that some members of bin Laden’s network had received training for hijackings, yet no group directly associated with al Qaeda had executed such an operation at that time. It was suggested, however, that bin Laden might consider various forms of attacks against U.S. aircraft.
In a PDB dated September 10, 1998, there was a warning that bin Laden showed a preference for a strike on U.S. soil, particularly targeting Washington, D.C. It was pointed out that the network responsible for the East Africa embassy bombings had the potential to crash a plane, filled with explosives, into an American city.
Throughout 1998, U.S. intelligence kept tabs on bin Laden’s movements, connecting him to various associates and sympathizers scattered across multiple states like New York, California, Texas, Michigan, and Florida, as noted in the documents.
The intelligence alerts were not isolated, spanning multiple presidential terms. An August 6, 2001, PDB made its way to Bush, detailing that the FBI had uncovered patterns of suspicious activities in the U.S. that seemed to correlate with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks—this included surveillance of federal buildings throughout New York.
According to that document, al-Qaida members, including American citizens, had been living in or traveling to the U.S. for years. The group appeared to have a support network capable of facilitating attacks. After U.S. missile strikes hit his base in Afghanistan in 1998, bin Laden expressed a desire to retaliate specifically in Washington, D.C.
Just weeks prior to the September 11, 2001, attacks, another daily brief for Bush noted that the FBI was conducting about 70 investigations across the nation believed to be linked to bin Laden.
The release of these documents is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to clarify what intelligence agencies were aware of leading up to the attacks. CIA Director John Ratcliffe announced that he authorized the release of 71 PDBs to honor the victims of 9/11, including CIA officers who lost their lives in subsequent efforts.
