The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency of the United States) decided to disclose secret reports prepared for American presidents about the extremist organization Al-Qaeda. The decision marks a change in the agency's transparency policy, which previously kept these documents classified.
One of the memos disclosed, dated September 10, 1998, contains an explicit warning about a possible Al-Qaeda attack. The document warns that the extremist group "could launch a plane loaded with explosives against an American city," anticipating by three years the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The reports are part of a collection known as the President's Daily Brief, which was prepared daily for the president of the United States during the period between 1995 and 2001. These documents were considered highly classified and accessible only to a small circle of government officials.
The disclosure of these memos occurs at a time of debate about the transparency of historical documents related to American national security. Experts point out that the reports reveal the level of information that the United States government already possessed about Al-Qaeda's intentions before the attacks that changed the history of the 21st century.
