The CIA revealed dozens of memoranda intended for then President Bill Clinton that allow reconstruction of US intelligence's knowledge about the Al-Qaida threat before the September 11, 2001 attacks. The documents, more than 70 in total, were made public and show the warnings that arrived at the White House before the attacks.
The memoranda demonstrate that US intelligence agencies had information about Osama Bin Laden's organization and his terrorist plans. This disclosure occurs in the context of greater transparency about what was known before the attacks that killed nearly three thousand people.
The publication of these documents comes at a time when intelligence failures that allowed the attacks to happen continue to be analyzed. The information contained in the memoranda raises questions about how the warnings were handled by American authorities.
Bill Clinton, who was President during the period covered by the documents, was one of the figures who received these warnings about the extremist threat. The release of these memoranda now allows a better understanding of what was known and when, contributing to the debate about the effectiveness of early warning systems.
