Clinton, Bush received multiple warnings on bin Laden hijack plots before 9/11, declassified files show

Former presidents Bill Clinton and George W.

Bush were given multiple warnings that 9/11 organizer Osama bin Laden and his terror network were planning to hijack large commercial jets in an effort to attack the United States, according to a batch of files released by the Trump administration on Friday.

The reports, contained in previously classified documents from presidential daily briefs (PDBs) and high-level CIA intelligence memorandums, noted that operatives had already evaded security checks during a trial run at an unidentified New York airport three years before members of al-Qaeda took down the World Trade Center.

The plotters aimed to leverage hijacked flights to demand the release of imprisoned extremists, including Shaykh 'Umar 'Abd al-Rahman and Ramzi Yousef.

USS COLE COMMANDER RECALLS CHILLING 9/11 WARNING AT CIA JUST 20 MINUTES BEFORE FIRST PLANE HIT "Some members of the bin Ladin network have received hijack training, according to various sources, but no group directly tied to bin Ladin's al-Qa'ida organization has ever carried out an aircraft hijacking," a Dec.

4, 1998 presidential daily briefing states.

"Bin Ladin could be weighing other types of operations against US aircraft." Months before the December 1998 briefing, a Sept.

10, 1998, PDB memorandum noted that bin Laden’s preferred option was to strike on U.S. soil in Washington, D.C.

That report warned that the terror network responsible for the East Africa embassy bombings could possibly fly a plane packed with explosives into an American city.

AMERICA BUILT A FORTRESS AFTER 9/11.

THEN THE THREAT STARTED HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT Throughout 1998, U.S. intelligence agencies tracked bin Laden's movements and support system, while identifying associates and sympathizers operating across several states, including New York, California, Texas, Michigan, and Florida, the documents state.

The warnings spanned two presidential administrations.

An Aug.

6, 2001, PDB delivered to Bush informed him that the FBI uncovered patterns of suspicious activity inside the U.S. consistent with preparations for hijackings or other attacks, as well as recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.