CIA releases never-before-seen warnings to Bush, Clinton about Al Qaeda

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on Friday publicly released for the first time a tranche of daily intelligence briefings provided ahead of September 11, 2001 to former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton about Al Qaeda’s plans to commit terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.

The intelligence agency released 71 declassified documents in what CIA Director John Ratcliffe called “an act of exceptional transparency” on the 25th anniversary of this tragic day. This is the single-largest release ever of the agency’s analysis of this terrorist attack, according to Ratcliffe.

“25 years ago, the 9/11 attacks struck a blow to our Nation, but they did not break us,” Ratcliffe said in a statement. “Generations of CIA officers have since dedicated their careers to securing justice for our fallen Americans and ensuring al-Qa’ida would never again harm our country.”

“In the years that followed, numerous CIA officers made the ultimate sacrifice in the Global War on Terror,” the CIA director continued. “We honor their memory and service through our commitment to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat those who wish to cause us harm.”

The files include a warning that Clinton received from the agency during his presidency in 1998. The memo , dated Sept. 10 of that year, warned that Al Qaeda “may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a U.S. city.”

The 9/11 Commission noted this memo in its 2004 study but did not mention that it was included in the then-president’s daily briefing. Items in the commander in chief’s daily briefings are among the most sensitive documents and only circulated among the president and a small circle of national security advisers.

While these newly-declassified CIA documents do not appear to contain major revelations about these attacks, they do provide a window into the information these two commanders-in-chief received in the lead up to this tragic day.

Earlier on Friday, a 9/11 victim’s widow, Terry Strada, called on the Trump administration to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for these attacks during a remembrance ceremony in New York City.

Strada accused former presidents present at this event of withholding evidence and choosing to “protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families.”

“They broke promises, both public and private,” she said. “It has been one betrayal after another.”

Fifteen of Al Qaeda’s plane hijackers were Saudi nationals, and Strada and other family members of 9/11 victims believe the Saudis were complicit in these attacks — an accusation the kingdom has repeatedly denied.

The widow called on President Trump to “tell the Saudis to stop lying.”

“Tell them that if they want to be friends with the USA, they cannot continue to deny all of this, all of the pain, all of the destruction that we have all been suffering through,” Strada said.

The Hill has reached out to the White House regarding Strada’s request.