On the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the CIA released 71 never-before-seen presidential intelligence briefs.

The newly declassified documents reveal stark warnings that raise intense criticism against Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

According to The New York Times, a Sept. 10, 1998, intelligence report sent to Bill Clinton’s White House warned that Al Qaeda “may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a U.S. city.”

“Today’s release of 71 PDB products related to 9/11 is an act of exceptional transparency and accountability. Americans can now see for themselves the intelligence leading up to this tragic day for our Nation,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said.

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The release, according to agency officials, is their largest focused on the Sept. 11 attacks. The intelligence analyses that were sent directly to the president and senior policymakers are among the agency’s most closely guarded documents, and the C.I.A.’s standard practice is to release them only after about 40 years, to ensure no sources are compromised and minimize any potential tension with allies.

The documents do not appear to contain major new revelations, and they remain redacted to obscure the sources of the information. But the briefings provide details of what the C.I.A. was telling Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush in the months and years before the attacks, along with an intelligence report provided in the early morning hours of Sept. 12.

The documents released Friday reinforce the central findings of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States and its 2004 report: U.S. intelligence agencies warned about Al Qaeda consistently, but failed to understand the scale of the attack the group had in mind.

John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director, said the documents were being released to honor the memory of those killed on Sept. 11, along with the C.I.A. officers who subsequently gave their lives.

“Twenty-five years ago, the 9/11 attacks struck a blow to our nation, but they did not break us,” Ratcliffe said.

“Generations of C.I.A. officers have since dedicated their careers to securing justice for our fallen Americans and ensuring Al Qaeda would never again harm our country,” he added.

The New York Post shared further:

The formerly classified documents, some of which were previously described in press reports, buttress post-attack assessments that Washington did too little to counteract bin Laden’s Islamist terror band, leading to the deaths of nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001.

The documents claimed Al Qaeda members were present in the US and had even performed a “trial run” at a New York airport nearly three full years before the staggering assault that took down the Twin Towers.

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“Bin Ladin [sic] Preparing To Hijack US Aircraft,” a Dec. 4, 1998, document prepared for Clinton’s Presidential Daily Brief ominously warned.

“Some members of the Bin Ladin network have received hijack training, according to various sources,” the document said. “Bin Ladin could be weighing other types of operations against US aircraft.”

The document added that a source had revealed that “Bin Ladin might implement plans to hijack a US aircraft before the beginning of Ramadan on 20 December and that two members of the operational team had evaded security checks during a recent trial run at an unidentified New York airport.”

On Sept. 10, 1998, material for the daily brief presented to Clinton warned: “Bin Ladin late last month said his preferred option is to strike the US on its own soil in Washington … the same group responsible for the [US Embassy] bombings in Africa [Kenya and Tanzania] may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a US city.”

That July, a document said “[w]e have received four reports from highly questionable sources suggesting Usama [sic] Bin Ladin is making plans to conduct an attack in the United States.”

 

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