25 Years Later: Newly Declassified 9/11 Files Reveal Government Warnings
For 25 years, Americans have asked the same haunting question: What did the government know before September 11, 2001?
Now, on the 25th anniversary of the attacks, a new batch of once-classified intelligence documents is giving the public a deeper look at what U.S. officials were being told about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda in the years and months before the attacks.
And some of the warnings are chilling.
Intelligence Warnings Before 9/11
The Trump administration released previously classified records Friday showing that intelligence officials had warned senior members of the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations about al-Qaeda’s plans and its desire to strike the United States.
One document, dated September 10, 1998 — exactly three years before 9/11 — warned that bin Laden was considering an attack involving an explosive-laden aircraft against an American city.
The report even identified Washington, D.C., as an area of particular concern.
At the time, however, intelligence officials did not have a precise picture of when, where or exactly how such an attack would happen.
That distinction matters.
What the Declassified Documents Reveal
The newly released documents do not show that officials knew the exact 9/11 plot in advance.
But they reveal that the threat was being discussed at the highest levels of government years before the Twin Towers fell.
And the warnings did not stop there.
By the summer of 2001, intelligence agencies were receiving increasingly alarming information about bin Laden’s organization.
A previously known August 6, 2001, President’s Daily Brief carried the now-famous warning: “Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US.”
The briefing discussed information about possible terrorist activity inside the United States, including concerns about al-Qaeda operatives and suspicious activity.
The Attacks and Their Aftermath
Less than six weeks later, four hijacked commercial airplanes would change America forever.
Two crashed into the World Trade Center.
One struck the Pentagon.
A fourth crashed into a field in Pennsylvania after passengers fought back against the hijackers.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed.
The newly declassified material also provides additional details about the intelligence community’s long-running efforts to track bin Laden, his network, his finances and his ambitions.
According to the Associated Press, the CIA released dozens of Presidential Daily Briefs and related documents — including material dating back to 1998. The release represents one of the agency’s largest disclosures of declassified presidential briefing documents.
The Challenge of Intelligence and Coordination
Among the warnings were concerns about hijackings, attacks on U.S. soil and even the possibility that aircraft could be used as weapons.
Yet knowing that a terrorist organization wanted to attack America was not the same as knowing exactly when the attack would happen.
That was the tragedy.
The intelligence existed.
The warnings existed.
But connecting the pieces — and turning those warnings into action capable of stopping the plot — proved extraordinarily difficult.
Former officials have acknowledged that the government struggled with intelligence sharing, coordination and the ability to understand the scale of the threat.
Former National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has previously expressed regret over the counterterrorism failures surrounding 9/11.
And now, a quarter-century later, Americans are being given another look at the information that existed before that terrible morning.
The National Archives has also released additional historically significant 9/11 records as part of the anniversary-related declassification effort. The agency said the effort followed renewed recommendations to release remaining records of importance concerning the attacks.
For the families who