The CIA released its largest-ever tranche of pre-September 11 intelligence analysis on the 25th anniversary of the attacks, including a 1998 memo to President Clinton warning that al Qaeda "may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a U.S. city."
CIA Director John Ratcliffe announced the release of 71 declassified documents on Friday, calling it "an act of exceptional transparency." The documents consist of daily intelligence briefings provided to both former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush in the months and years before the September 11, 2001 attacks, The Hill reported. President Trump authorized the declassification, according to White House spokesperson Olivia Wales.
One document stands out above the rest. A CIA memo dated September 10, 1998, exactly three years to the day before the attacks, warned Clinton that al Qaeda "may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a U.S. city." The 9/11 Commission noted that memo in its 2004 report but never disclosed that it had been included in the president's daily briefing, the most closely read intelligence product in the federal government.
The distinction matters. A daily intelligence briefing is not a think-tank white paper that lands on a pile. It is hand-delivered to the president and designed to command his attention on the most urgent national security threats facing the country. The fact that this specific warning reached Clinton's desk in that format, and that the 9/11 Commission's 2004 study omitted that detail, raises serious questions about what prior administrations knew, when they knew it, and why the full picture took a quarter-century to reach the public.
Ratcliffe framed the release in terms of sacrifice and resolve. In a statement, the CIA director said:
"25 years ago, the 9/11 attacks struck a blow to our Nation, but they did not break us. 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."
He continued:
"In the years that followed, numerous CIA officers made the ultimate sacrifice in the Global War on Terror. We honor their memory and service through our commitment to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat those who wish to cause us harm."
The Clinton family name has remained a fixture in American political life for decades. Bill Clinton left office in January 2001, eight months before the attacks. His wife, Hillary Clinton, has continued to draw public attention, most recently criticizing Biden's reelection bid as a strategic failure that handed the presidency back to Trump.
Earlier on Friday, at a remembrance ceremony in New York City, Terry Strada, whose husband was killed in the September 11 attacks, delivered a pointed message to the former presidents in attendance. Strada accused them of withholding evidence and choosing to "protect the Saudis instead of standing with the 9/11 families."
Her words carried the weight of 25 years of frustration. Strada told the gathering:
"They broke promises, both public and private. It has been one betrayal after another."
Strada called directly on the Trump administration to confront Saudi Arabia over the kingdom's role in the attacks. Fifteen of the hijackers on September 11 were Saudi nationals. The kingdom has repeatedly denied any involvement, but 9/11 families have pressed for accountability for more than two decades.
Strada urged President Trump to deliver a blunt message to Riyadh:
"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."
The Clintons' post-presidency wealth and influence have themselves drawn scrutiny. Commentators like Stephen A. Smith have questioned how Clinton and Obama amassed massive fortunes while ordinary Americans struggled, a pattern that sits uneasily beside the families still waiting for answers about what their government knew before 3,000 people died.
When asked about Strada's request, White House spokesperson Olivia Wales pointed to the CIA's Friday document release. Wales said in a statement:
"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. 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."
The release also coincided with a declassification ruling by the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel, the government body that adjudicates disputes over classified records, on appeals related to 9/11 documents. Those rulings, designated as ISCAP appeals 2022-008 and 2023-001, were published through the National Archives on the same day.
The scope of the 71 documents beyond the 1998 Clinton memo remains unclear. The CIA described the release as the largest single batch of its 9/11 analysis ever made public, but the full contents, and whether any of the briefings delivered to George W. Bush contain similarly stark warnings, have not been detailed in public reporting so far.
Hillary Clinton's own relationship with the intelligence community has created controversy in recent months. She called on federal employees to withhold intelligence from Acting Director of National Intelligence Pulte, an extraordinary public appeal that critics said amounted to encouraging insubordination within the agencies responsible for keeping Americans safe.
The 9/11 Commission published its final report in 2004. That report referenced the September 10, 1998 memo, but left out the critical fact that the warning had been placed directly in the president's daily briefing. For 22 years after the commission's work, that detail stayed hidden. It took a presidential declassification order to bring it into the open.
Several questions remain unanswered. What do the other 70 documents reveal about the intelligence picture available to Bush and Clinton before the attacks? Do any of the newly released briefings shed light on Saudi government connections to the hijackers? And why did the 9/11 Commission, tasked with giving the American people a full accounting, fail to disclose that the airplane-attack warning was delivered at the highest possible level of presidential intelligence?
The broader Clinton political orbit continues to draw attention for its willingness to insert itself into national debates. Hillary Clinton recently scolded progressives who refused to support her and acknowledged that Republican attacks on the left's ideological drift were landing with voters. But the declassified documents raise a different kind of question, not about political strategy, but about whether the government her husband led took seriously enough the warnings its own intelligence agency delivered.
Terry Strada and the other 9/11 families have waited 25 years for the full truth. They buried husbands, wives, sons, and daughters. They watched administrations come and go, each promising transparency, each falling short. Friday's release is a step, but for families who were told their government had their backs, the 1998 memo is a reminder of what accountability actually looks like when it arrives a quarter-century late.
The families did not ask for much. They asked their government to tell them what it knew. It took 25 years and a different president to start getting an honest answer.
