From Valleynewslive · · 3m
The CIA just opened its 9/11 warning file
Seventy-one presidential briefings, declassified 25 years later, trace what the White House was told about bin Laden before the towers fell.
In brief
Seventy-one presidential briefings, declassified 25 years later, trace what the White House was told about bin Laden before the towers fell. The warnings were not vague and they were not late. For three years the president's morning brief named the network, the tactics, and even the idea of flying a packed plane into…
Seventy-one briefs go public
The CIA declassified 71 President's Daily Brief documents spanning 1998 through the days around Sept. 11, 2001. They are now posted on the agency's website.
Biggest release since 2004
The agency calls this the largest 9/11-related declassification since the 9/11 Commission Report. The timing lines up with the 25th anniversary of the attacks.
It starts with Africa
The earliest documents follow the August 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, attacks already tied to Osama bin Laden.
Three hundred threats in weeks
A Sept. 11, 1998 memo counted nearly 300 threats worldwide since the embassy bombings. They peaked a week after US retaliatory strikes, then began to fade.
A plane into a US city
That same 1998 memo listed an option bin Laden was said to be weighing: hitting America at home, possibly by flying an explosive-packed aircraft into a city.
“the same group responsible for the bombings in Africa”
Hijacking plans on paper
A December 1998 brief, "Bin Ladin Preparing To Hijack US Aircraft," described a completed US operation plan, possibly a hijacking to free prisoners including Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman.
A dry run at the airport
One source in that document said two members of an operational team slipped past security checks during a trial run at an unnamed New York airport.
Millennium plots disrupted
Late 1999 memos track efforts to break up bin Laden plots around the millennium, including three operatives fresh off six months of training in Afghanistan.
“an operation of high magnitude”
Ressam and the LAX plot
A Dec. 30, 1999 memo flagged Ahmed Ressam, caught smuggling bomb components into the US. He later told the FBI that bin Laden lieutenant Abu Zubaydah backed his plan to hit Los Angeles International.
The Cole, planned for years
On the October 2000 bombing that killed 17 sailors in Yemen, a bin Laden operative told a confidant it was an al-Qaida job bin Laden personally planned roughly three years ahead.
Suspects still at large
The memos note that only one key operative in the Cole attack, Jamal al-Badawi, was in custody. Most of the principal suspects remained free.
2001 threats go global
Spring and summer briefs describe plots against a US embassy in Rome or the Vatican, a car bomb aimed at the embassy in Santiago, and cells ready to strike across the Persian Gulf.
Delayed, not called off
A July 24, 2001 memo said an imminent bin Laden operation had been postponed twice in two weeks, while other near-term attacks moved ahead. Operatives traded coded messages.
“something they had expected to hear in the news is still planned but has been delayed a few months”
Days before the attacks
An Aug. 28, 2001 brief called bin Laden's operations expert and flexible: careful planning, tight security, followers skilled at varied strikes while hiding their plans.
“Bin Ladin Operations Are Expert and Flexible”
The main idea
The warnings were not vague and they were not late. For three years the president's morning brief named the network, the tactics, and even the idea of flying a packed plane into a US city.
