Ex-Presidents Under Fire After Trump Declassifies Bombshell 9/11 Documents

Newly declassified intelligence records are putting fresh scrutiny on the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations, revealing that both White Houses received repeated warnings that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda were considering attacks inside the United States before Sept. 11, 2001.

The cache of Presidential Daily Brief material was released Friday by the Trump administration as the nation marked the 25th anniversary of the attacks.

The documents show intelligence officials were tracking possible hijack plots, threats against Washington and indications that Al Qaeda operatives were already inside the country.

One briefing prepared for President Bill Clinton on Dec. 4, 1998, carried the ominous title: “Bin Ladin [sic] Preparing To Hijack US Aircraft,”

“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 same document said intelligence had surfaced suggesting that bin Laden could move quickly.

It added 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.”

Another briefing prepared for Clinton on Sept. 10, 1998, warned that bin Laden wanted to strike on American soil.

“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.”

Other intelligence was less certain.

To commemorate the 25th anniversary of 9/11, CIA released 71 President’s Daily Briefs to give Americans a glimpse into our most sensitive intelligence from the years before and day after one of our Nation’s darkest moments.https://t.co/Z2QIjcuvAj pic.twitter.com/N8ZoZ2OvtZ

— CIA (@CIA) September 11, 2026

A July briefing said “we 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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By February 2000, intelligence officials were also reporting possible symbolic targets inside the country, including the Statue of Liberty.

The warnings continued after Bush entered the White House.

Among the newly released material is the now-infamous 2001 briefing titled, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US,” which became a major focus of post-9/11 investigations.

“Al-Qa’ida [sic] 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,” that file said.

The briefing also pointed to suspicious activity inside the country.

“After US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington,” the document states, noting the FBI found “patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.”

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The intelligence did not identify the eventual Sept. 11 targets or provide authorities with a complete operational blueprint for the attacks.

Some of the reports also came from sources intelligence officials themselves considered unreliable.

In a July 21, 1999, memo, the CIA reported that bin Laden’s organization claimed it had “made a dry run of a bombing of the FBI headquarters” in Washington and suggested an operation could happen “soon.”

But the CIA cautioned that analysts had “reservations about the source.”

The intelligence community was also examining reports that bin Laden wanted chemical, biological or even nuclear weapons.

“If Bin Ladin succeeded in buying a chemical or biological weapon,” a document noted in February 1999, “his past behavior and statements indicate he would have no reservations about using it and he would begin searching for a suitable target.”

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The release came as CIA Director John Ratcliffe announced that dozens of Presidential Daily Briefs were being made public in connection with the anniversary.

“Today I authorized the release of 71 Presidential Daily Briefs to honor the lives of those killed on 9/11,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement.

The documents add new detail to long-standing questions about whether U.S. officials adequately connected the warning signs surrounding Al Qaeda before nearly 3,000 people were murdered on Sept. 11.

Those questions were thrust back into the spotlight Friday when Condoleezza Rice, who served as Bush’s national security adviser at the time of the attacks, publicly acknowledged the government’s failure to recognize the danger in time.

“Those of us in authority on that day did not see the nature of the danger in time to prevent the attack of 9/11,” Rice said.

“I will always carry deep personal remorse for the pain that you, the families of the fallen, still feel, and for the trauma that our country endured.”

The newly released intelligence does not establish that either president knew the specific Sept. 11 plot in advance, but it shows that concerns about bin Laden, aircraft hijackings and attacks inside the United States had reached the highest levels of government years before the Twin Towers fell.

Twenty-five years later, the declassified records are once again forcing Washington to confront how many warnings were circulating before the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil.

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