Newly declassified CIA documents have revealed that Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network were considering attacks against the United Kingdom several years before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.
The documents, released by the CIA ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11, include intelligence assessments dating back to the late 1990s. One briefing, dated August 28, 1998, was titled “Bin Ladin Terrorist Network Still a Threat.”
The assessment said bin Laden was considering further attacks against the United States and the UK shortly before the US launched cruise missile strikes against al-Qaeda-linked targets in Afghanistan and Sudan.
“Hours before the US missile strikes, Bin Laden was looking at options for further attacks against the US as well as the UK,” the briefing stated, adding that he had not identified specific targets or a timeline.
The document also identified a US embassy in an unnamed country as a possible target and said an individual had been authorised by bin Laden to investigate potential attacks inside the United States.
Another intelligence assessment produced later in 1998 warned of a significant near-term threat from bin Laden's network. It said US officials had strong indications that he wanted to attack the United States and allied countries on their own territory.
“We have strong indications that he would like to attack the US and allies such as the UK and Israel on their own soil,” the memo stated.
The assessment added that if bin Laden considered such locations too heavily protected, his network could instead target US and allied interests elsewhere in the world.
A separate August 1999 document examined the impact of arrests of senior al-Qaeda operatives on the organisation's capabilities. It noted that the arrests had weakened the network but also said bin Laden had previously expressed anger over the detention of senior figures, including his procurement chief and the head of his organisation in the UK.
The documents also highlight the limitations facing US intelligence agencies before 9/11. Some assessments were based on what officials described as “sparse, vague, and imperfect information.”
Among the threats considered by intelligence officials were possible aircraft hijackings. One assessment raised the possibility that a group could “fly an explosive-packed airplane into a US city.”
On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda operatives hijacked four commercial aircraft. Two were flown into the World Trade Center towers in New York, another struck the Pentagon in Virginia, while the fourth crashed in Pennsylvania after passengers attempted to regain control of the plane.
The latest CIA release contains 71 partially redacted briefing notes, two of which had previously been made public. The documents cover intelligence assessments from the period before and immediately after the September 11 attacks.
The CIA said the release was intended to provide insight into some of the agency's most sensitive intelligence from the years leading up to and the day after 9/11.
According to the agency, the documents show how CIA analysts' understanding of al-Qaeda developed as they gathered intelligence on the organisation before and after the attacks.
