The CIA released more than 70 memos addressed to then President Bill Clinton, documents that help reconstruct what intelligence knew about the Al-Qaida threat before the September 11, 2001 attacks. This disclosure comes as part of an effort to increase transparency about the warnings that reached the White House before the attacks.
The documents reveal that CIA analysts identified signs of imminent attacks by Osama Bin Laden's organization. However, despite the warnings, intelligence was unable to accurately anticipate the scale that the attacks would reach, nor the method by which they would be carried out.
The release of these memos now allows for a better understanding of the level of information that was available before September 11, showing both what was known about the threat and the limitations that existed in the response capacity of US intelligence services.
