CIA releases declassified pre-9/11 presidential briefings on Bin Laden and al-Qaida

The CIA declassified several dozen presidential daily briefings on Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida on Friday, the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

• CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the release was the agency's largest single declassification of presidential daily briefs and represented "an act of exceptional transparency."
• The documents detailed analysts' tracking of Bin Laden's movements, financing, and pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.
• The release included a 12 September 2001 report indicating the attacks had been planned for two years and had also targeted the US Capitol.
• The White House pointed to a separate release by the National Archives of interviews with national security officials from the Clinton and Bush administrations, a product of the 9/11 Commission.

Latest developments

• Sep 12 — The released briefs span from February 1998 to 12 September 2001 and included warnings that bin Laden intended to strike US soil using explosive-packed airplanes.
• Sep 12 — The CIA said analysts had failed to assemble those warnings into a clear picture before the attacks.
• Sep 12 — The CIA said the release offers no evidence supporting conspiracy theories of government prior knowledge, and several briefs had already been made public.