Recently-released declassified documents belonging to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) indicate that Al-Qaeda Chief Osama Bin Laden had been mulling attacks against several countries, including India, more than three years before the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States (US).

A CIA Presidential Daily Brief published on August 28, 1998, reportedly named India alongside Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Yemen, Uganda and Pakistan among countries that Bin Laden was considering to target. However, no specific Indian target, location or operational plan had been named in the document.

The intelligence brief, titled Bin Laden Terrorist Network Still a Threat, instead warned about the wider reach, capabilities and the extent of the Bin Laden network. It underlined that the group’s established infrastructure in North America, Europe and East Asia lent credibility to reports that it could also target US interests in those regions.

Briefing warns of attack inside the US

The recently released intelligence material also revealed the extent of concern within the US intelligence community over Bin Laden’s motives. A briefing dating back to September 10, 1998, mentioned that Bin Laden’s preferred location for an attack was within the US, and Washington had been identified as a key target. A CIA analyst also warned that Al-Qaeda ‘may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a city in the US.’

The disclosure assumes immense significance as the 9/11 Commission’s 2004 report had noted that US intelligence believed Al-Qaeda was considering using an aircraft in an attack. However, it was still not clear whether the specific warning reached the then-President Bill Clinton.

Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda had already been branded as a major threat by US intelligence in 1998. In August 1998, the terror outfit executed bombings at US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people. The attacks prompted Washington to launch cruise-missile strikes against targets in Sudan and Afghanistan.

71 Presidential Daily Briefs released

The CIA has further released 71 Presidential Daily Briefs covering the period from early 1998 to the day after the 9/11 attacks. Out of these, 69 had never been publicised.

A majority of these documents remain heavily redacted, and were prepared during the Clinton and George W Bush administrations. They reveal mounting alarm over Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda while also shedding light on the difficulty the US intelligence agencies faced in ascertaining the timings, scale and the precise nature of the threat.

One of the documents, which had been delivered to the White House at 4 am on September 12, 2001, stated that ‘mounting evidence’ indicated that radicalists in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf were aware that an attack threat was looming.

Another partially redacted section said the plot was widely known in extremist circles. It further suggested that Laden may have moved to Kabul to avoid a dispute with Taliban leadership over the plan. Less than a month after the attacks, the US and its allies invaded Afghanistan to dismantle Al-Qaeda.

CIA Director John Radcliffe said the September 11 attacks had dealt a severe blow to the US but failed to break the country, adding that generations of CIA officers had since worked to procure justice for those killed and deter Al-Qaeda from striking America again.