CIA releases dozens of presidential daily briefs on Bin Laden and al-Qaida from before 9/11

The presidential briefing documents were declassified on the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks Several dozen presidential briefing documents declassified on Friday, the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks , detail intelligence that government officials had gathered about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida leading up to the hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people and upended American national security . The documents illustrate security analysts’ tracking of Bin Laden’s movements and support system, as well as concerns about possible threats to US targets. They also detail officials’ understanding of his network in the United States and other countries, including how his operations were financed. Proclaiming it “an act of exceptional transparency”, the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, said the documents were the agency’s single largest release of declassified presidential daily briefs – the highly classified briefings prepared by the nation’s intelligence community for the government’s most senior leaders.

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