CIA declassifies over 70 presidential notes on Al Qaeda; 1998 warnings about planes

The Central Intelligence Agency on September 11, 2026 declassified more than 70 presidential intelligence notes concerning the jihadist group Al Qaeda and its former leader Osama bin Laden, releasing the materials exactly 25 years after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

In a public statement, the Agency described the release as “unprecedented transparency into the most sensitive intelligence file in America, covering the years leading up to and the day after one of the darkest moments in our history.”

Documents trace changing CIA assessments and earlier warnings

The declassified pages, the Agency said, “track how CIA analysts’ understanding of Al Qaeda evolved, and their efforts to illuminate Osama bin Laden’s plans despite rare, unclear and incomplete information.” These notes span the late 1990s and include raw intelligence, internal assessments and memo summaries prepared for senior officials.

One memorandum dated September 10, 1998 contains a direct warning that Al Qaeda “could bring down an airplane loaded with explosives on an American city.” Another entry from December 4, 1998 states that Osama bin Laden “and his associates are preparing attacks in the United States, including hijacking an airplane.”

The documents were released amid renewed public interest in the origins and trajectory of the 2001 attacks. On September 11, 2001, the United States was struck by four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by 19 members of Al Qaeda, in which nearly 3,000 people were killed.

Photo: press material from the event