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CIA warned of Al-Qaeda attack three years before 9/11

Newly declassified CIA documents reveal the agency warned of an Al-Qaeda plane attack on US soil three years before the 9/11 tragedy.

CIA warned of Al-Qaeda attack three years before 9/11
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Twenty-five years after the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York’s Twin Towers, the CIA has declassified documents revealing that the agency had been warning about Al-Qaeda three years before the attacks took place. Specifically, on Friday, September 11, 2026, the American intelligence agency declassified more than 70 presidential intelligence briefings related to the jihadist organization Al-Qaeda and its former leader, Osama bin Laden. The release of these documents offers “unprecedented transparency” into this highly sensitive matter, as they cover the years leading up to 2001 and the day following the attack — described by the CIA in its statement as “one of the darkest moments in our history.”

Read: 9/11: Bush’s reaction when he learned of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers — “You could see the change in his face” (Video)

CIA warned of an Al-Qaeda terrorist attack three years before 9/11

These documents chronicle “the history of the evolving understanding” that CIA analysts developed regarding Al-Qaeda and their efforts to uncover Osama bin Laden’s plans, despite working with “fragmentary, ambiguous, and incomplete intelligence,” the agency added.

One of the documents, dated September 10, 1998, contains a CIA warning that Al-Qaeda could “crash an airplane loaded with explosives into an American city.” Another document, dated December 4, 1998, states that Osama bin Laden “and his allies are preparing for attacks in the United States, including the hijacking of an aircraft.”

It is worth noting that on September 11, 2001, 19 Al-Qaeda members hijacked four aircraft in coordinated suicide attacks targeting New York and Washington, killing approximately 3,000 people.

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