The CIA on Friday released 71 declassified presidential daily briefs spanning from February 1998 to September 12, 2001, that detail intelligence gathered on Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida in the years before the September 11 attacks.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe described the disclosure as the agency's single largest release of declassified presidential daily briefs and called it an act of exceptional transparency. The documents were made public on the 25th anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

The briefings, prepared for Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, track bin Laden's network, finances, and potential plans to strike U.S. targets. One February 1998 document prepared for Clinton was titled "Terrorists seeking WMD capability" and referenced bin Laden along with other Islamic extremists.

A July 1998 briefing noted it was plausible that bin Laden placed high priority on attacks inside the United States and showed interest in chemical and biological agents. A September 1998 memo stated bin Laden's preferred option was to strike the U.S. on its own soil in Washington and that al-Qaida may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a U.S. city.

A December 1998 briefing reported that some members of bin Laden's network had received hijack training and that conspirators had evaded security checks during a trial run at an unidentified New York airport. Later documents from 2001 described al-Qaida's flexible operational decision-making and noted suspicious activity consistent with preparations for hijackings.

A September 12, 2001, report indicated the attacks had been planned for two years and had also targeted the U.S. Capitol. The documents remain redacted in places to protect sources and methods.

Analysts noted that while the reports showed repeated warnings about threats to the homeland, the precise nature of the attacks remained unclear amid broader intelligence noise. The release includes more than 100 pages of material and underscores the intelligence community's focus on bin Laden well before 2001.