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CIA releases never-before-seen warnings to Bush, Clinton about al Qaeda The CIA on Friday publicly released for the first time a tranche of daily intelligence briefings provided ahead of Sept. 11, 2001, to former Presidents George W. Bush and Clinton about al Qaeda’s plans to commit terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. The intelligence agency released 71 declassified documents in what CIA Director John Ratcliffe called “an act of exceptional transparency” on the 25th anniversary of the attacks. It is the largest single release of the agency’s analysis of 9/11, Ratcliffe said. “25 years ago, the 9/11 attacks struck a blow to our Nation, but they did not break us,” Ratcliffe said in a statement. “Generations of CIA officers have since dedicated their careers to securing justice for our fallen Americans and ensuring al-Qa’ida would never again harm our country.” “In the years that followed, numerous CIA officers made the ultimate sacrifice in the Global War on Terror,” he continued. “We honor their memory and service through our commitment to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat those who wish to cause us harm.” The files include a warning that Clinton received from the agency during his presidency in 1998. The memo, dated Sept. 10 of that year, warned that al Qaeda “may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a U.S. city.” The 9/11 Commission noted the memo in its 2004 study but did not mention it was included in the then-president’s daily briefing. Items in the commander in chief’s daily briefings are among the most sensitive documents and only shared with the president and a small circle of national security advisers. While the newly declassified CIA documents do not appear to contain major revelations about the attacks, they provide a window into the information the two presidents received in the lead-up to 9/11. Earlier on Friday, a 9/11 victim’s widow, Terry Strada, called on the Trump administration to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for the attacks during a remembrance ceremony in New York City. Strada accused the former presidents who were present at the event of withholding evidence and choosing to “protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families.” “They broke promises, both public and private,” she said. “It has been one betrayal after another.” Fifteen of al Qaeda’s plane hijackers were Saudi nationals, and Strada and other family members of 9/11 victims believe the Saudis were complicit in the attacks — an accusation the kingdom has repeatedly denied. The widow called on President Trump to “tell the Saudis to stop lying.” “Tell them that if they want to be friends with the USA, they cannot continue to deny all of this, all of the pain, all of the destruction that we have all been suffering through,” Strada said. White House spokesperson Olivia Wales pointed to the CIA’s Friday document release when reached for comment about Strada’s request. “President Trump is leading the most transparent administration in history, which is why he authorized the declassification and release of hundreds of pages of documents related to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001,” Wales said. “The President will always pay tribute to the American heroes we lost in the tragic September 11 attacks, their beautiful family members, and to the acts of heroism that defined that fateful day when the unbreakable spirit of the American people prevailed.” Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
document fetched 2026-09-12 02:58 · canonical https://thehill.com/policy/defense/6085396-cia-releases-911-intelligence-briefings