"Attempt to Acquire Nuclear Materials"…US CIA Releases 9/11 Classified Documents

71 Classified 9/11 Documents Released
Multiple Advance Warnings Given to President
NYT Criticizes Lack of Awareness and Response

The development projects including 1WTC (Freedom Tower), five other supertall buildings, the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, and the New York subway transit hub have continued even 15 years after the incident.

On September 11 (local time), marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) released classified materials related to al-Qaeda and its leader Osama bin Laden, who orchestrated the attacks. There are criticisms that, despite repeated advance warnings, the government's response was inadequate.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe announced on the social networking service X (formerly Twitter) that he had approved the release of 71 President's Daily Brief (PDB) documents "to honor those who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks and the CIA agents who later sacrificed themselves in the war on terror." Ratcliffe explained that this is the first time such a large volume of the highly classified President's Daily Brief has been released at once.

The New York Times (NYT) reported that while there are no major new facts in the released materials, they underscore the September 11 Commission's previous finding that, despite persistent advance warnings, authorities failed not only to understand but also to respond properly to the threats.

The documents released on this day are diverse. For example, there was a file titled "Terrorists Seeking Weapons of Mass Destruction Capabilities" sent to then-President Bill Clinton in February 1998. Another report, dated September 12, 2001—one day after the attacks—stated that "the attack had been planned for two years, and that the U.S. Capitol had also been targeted."

According to analyses by foreign media outlets such as The Associated Press and NYT, the July 1998 report included warnings that "bin Laden is prioritizing attacks inside the United States" and "has shown interest in chemical and biological attacks." The September 1998 report further stated that "bin Laden prefers options for attacking the U.S. mainland from Washington, D.C." and specifically warned that "al-Qaeda could use bomb-laden airplanes to strike U.S. cities." NYT described these reports as prescient.

A December 1998 report conveyed that some members of bin Laden's network had undergone training in aircraft hijacking. According to AP, "other documents detailed the securing of materials for conventional weapons laced with radioactive substances, so-called 'dirty bombs,'" and intelligence authorities determined that bin Laden's operatives were conducting explosives experiments aimed at increasing energy output as late as June 1999.

One of the reports also included information indicating that bin Laden, inspired by the United States' atomic bombing of Hiroshima during WWII, had attempted to purchase highly enriched uranium.

Exactly one month before the attacks, on August 6, 2001, a report titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside U.S." emerged. Officials at the time reported suspicious circumstances, including surveillance of the federal courthouse in New York and preparations indicative of aircraft hijackings and other forms of attack. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also announced that it was conducting full-scale field investigations of about 70 cases nationwide considered to be related to bin Laden.

Condoleezza Rice, who served as the National Security Adviser at the time of the September 11 attacks and later as U.S. Secretary of State, said during her speech at a Pentagon memorial marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11 that "those of us who were in charge that day failed to fully recognize the nature of the threat quickly enough to prevent the attack." She added, "We did everything we could, but in the end, it was not enough."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.