Former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush received multiple warnings about Usama bin Laden’s plans to hijack large commercial jets and attack the United States. This information comes from documents released by the Trump administration, including presidential daily briefs (PDBs) and CIA intelligence memorandums. The reports reveal that operatives bypassed security at a New York airport three years before the World Trade Center attack.
The plan involved using hijacked planes to demand the release of imprisoned extremists like Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman and Ramzi Yousef. Intelligence warnings about potential terror activities spanned across multiple administrations. A December 4, 1998, presidential daily briefing noted that although some al Qaeda members were trained to hijack, none had executed such an attack linked directly to bin Laden’s organization.
“Bin Ladin could be weighing other types of operations against US aircraft,” the briefing stated.
Earlier, on September 10, 1998, another PDB highlighted bin Laden’s preference to strike within the U.S., including possible plans to crash a plane with explosives into an American city. The intelligence community tracked bin Laden’s actions throughout 1998, identifying his network across states including New York, California, Texas, Michigan, and Florida.
On August 6, 2001, a PDB told President Bush the FBI found suspicious activities in the U.S. suggesting hijack preparations and surveillance of New York federal buildings. It emphasized al Qaeda’s presence within the U.S. to support potential attacks. After U.S. missile strikes on Afghanistan in 1998, bin Laden expressed a desire to retaliate in Washington.
“Al-Qa’ida members — including some who are US citizens — have resided in or traveled to the US for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks,” the PDB informed.
Shortly before the 9/11 attacks, a daily brief for Bush reported 70 ongoing FBI investigations likely related to bin Laden.
The document release is part of an effort to disclose what intelligence agencies knew pre-9/11. CIA Director John Ratcliffe stated, “Today I authorized the release of 71 Presidential Daily Briefs to honor the lives of those killed on 9/11, along with CIA officers who subsequently gave their lives to the fight.”
Along with these revelations, the Trump administration has also declassified files on the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr.