'Bin Laden determined to strike in US': Declassified CIA docs reveal warnings before 9/11

Osama bin Laden (File photo) Newly declassified documents by the CIA suggest that they had repeatedly warned of possible attacks on US soil, including the possibility of an explosive-packed aircraft being flown into a US city, years before the September 11 attacks.The CIA on Friday released 71 intelligence reports prepared for the President's Daily Brief in the years before and immediately after the 9/11 attacks, offering a detailed chronology of what US intelligence knew about Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida as their threat evolved.The collection, released as the US marked 25 years since the attacks, contains assessments dating from 1998 through September 12, 2001. While many passages remain redacted, the documents show that warnings about attacks inside the US, aircraft hijackings, Bin Laden's interest in unconventional weapons and the capabilities of his network appeared repeatedly in intelligence reports.Multiple warningsOn September 10, 1998, a CIA assessment said Bin Laden's “preferred option” was to strike the US on its own soil in Washington. It also said the same group responsible for the bombings of US embassies in Africa “may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a US city”...