The CIA on Friday published dozens of declassified presidential daily briefings that mention bin laden and al‑Qaida, including a set the agency says contains 71 PDB products tied to the run‑up to Sept. 11.
The agency said the collection is “the single largest release of declassified CIA PDB products related to 9/11,” and the published briefs range from a February 1998 memo titled “Terrorists seeking WMD capability” to a Sept. 12, 2001, report noting a source who said the attacks had been planned for two years, according to the CIA and reporting by PBS NewsHour.
The release was timed for the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, when the National Archives also posted a 7,000‑word President’s Daily Brief summary compiled by the 9/11 Commission after reviewing all PDBs that mentioned al‑Qaida, the Archives’ Transforming Classification blog said.
In announcing the publication, CIA materials said the briefs offer an “unprecedented look” at intelligence analysts’ tracking of bin laden’s movements, his network and concerns about possible U.S. targets in the months and years before the hijackings.
The Archives post said the release follows sustained advocacy by the Public Interest Declassification Board and an Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel review that led to declassification of records the board had urged be made public.
The newly posted CIA collection and the Archives’ PDB summary also include interviews and memoranda for the record with senior officials from the Clinton and Bush administrations, the Archives said; PBS noted the documents include interviews conducted by the 9/11 Commission with figures such as Richard Clarke and others.
Readers interested in related coverage can see reporting on families’ calls for declassification and contemporaneous reflections from officials in our archive: 9/11 families urge declassify records and Condoleezza Rice reflects on 9/11.
Sources
- CIA — announced the release and published a page listing the “seventy‑one declassified President’s Daily Brief products” and the agency’s description of the collection.
- PBS NewsHour / Associated Press — reported that the documents detail tracking of Osama bin laden and al‑Qaida and quoted agency comments on the release.
- Transforming Classification (National Archives) — published that a 7,000‑word PDB summary compiled by the 9/11 Commission and related memoranda were declassified and posted on the 25th anniversary.
