Declassified US intelligence documents indicate that Osama bin Laden wanted to attack Britain years before the September 11 atrocities, with warnings issued as early as 1998 that the al Qaeda leader was considering strikes against the UK.
The files, released by CIA director John Ratcliffe to mark the 25th anniversary of the attacks, form part of the largest publication of President’s Daily Brief material relating to 9/11.
The confidential briefings were prepared for the US president and summarised major threats, national security concerns and intelligence assessments. The 71 released documents have been redacted but chart the CIA’s developing understanding of al Qaeda and its leader’s intentions.
One memo, prepared after US cruise missile strikes on al Qaeda bases in Sudan and Afghanistan, was titled “Bin Ladin Terrorist Network Still a Threat”. It said that, hours before the strikes, bin Laden was considering “options for further attacks against the US as well as the UK”, although he had not identified precise targets or timing.
A further briefing later in 1998 warned of a “Significant Near-Term Threat of Bin Ladin Attacks”. It stated: “We have strong indications that he would like to attack the US and allies such as the UK and Israel on their own soil.”
The document added that if those locations were judged too heavily defended, bin Laden could target American and allied interests elsewhere in the world that were accessible to his network.
The same briefing referred to plans to hijack aircraft in connection with “impending anti-US terrorist operations”.
Warnings about al Qaeda’s UK network
A separate assessment from August 1999 described bin Laden’s frustration after British police detained two of his London-based operatives.
“His organisation’s capabilities have suffered from the arrest of key operatives,” the document said, adding that bin Laden had expressed anger over the arrests of his senior procurement officer and the head of his organisation in the UK.
Britain was also identified as a recruiting ground. A briefing dated October 14 2000 said that supporters were recruiting young Muslims in the UK, Pakistan, Turkey, the Arabian Peninsula and elsewhere to attend training camps in Afghanistan affiliated with bin Laden.
The final document in the collection was dated the day after the September 11 attacks. It said intelligence indicated the operation had been planned for two years and suggested that the US Capitol and White House might also have been intended targets.
In total, 2,977 people were killed when hijacked passenger aircraft struck the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon outside Washington DC on September 11 2001. A fourth aircraft, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed in rural Pennsylvania after passengers and crew fought back.
The attacks claimed the lives of people from more than 90 nations, including 67 British citizens.
At a 25th anniversary ceremony at the Pentagon, former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who was national security adviser at the time, said she continued to feel pain that those in authority had not recognised the danger in time to prevent the attacks.
She said: “I will always carry deep personal remorse for the pain that you, the families of the fallen, still feel, and for the trauma that our country endured.”
Bin Laden was later reported to have had prior knowledge of the July 7 2005 bombings in London, which killed 52 people and injured more than 770. Evidence also emerged that he knew about a foiled 2006 plot to detonate liquid explosives on transatlantic flights from the UK.
He was killed by US forces during a raid on his compound in Pakistan in 2011.
