Osama Bin Laden planned terror strikes in India before 9/11 attacks: CIA files

Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden had planned to carry out attacks in several countries, including India, years before the September 11, 2001, terrorist strikes in the United States, according to documents declassified by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) on Friday.

The CIA declassified several dozen presidential briefing documents marking the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people and fundamentally altered US national security policy.

A presidential briefing dated August 28, 1998, states that bin Laden wanted to launch attacks in several countries, including India and Pakistan. Other countries mentioned in the document, titled ‘Bin Laden Terrorist Network Still a Threat’, include Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Uganda and “possibly” Nigeria.

The document, however, does not provide details about how the attacks were to be carried out or identify specific potential targets.

The declassified files offer insight into US intelligence agencies’ efforts to track bin Laden’s movements, his support network and potential threats to American interests. The briefings were prepared for then-President Bill Clinton.

The documents span a period from February 1998, when one file discussed bin Laden and other Islamist extremists, to a September 12, 2001, report stating that the attacks had been in preparation for two years and that the US Capitol had also been among the intended targets.

The August 1998 briefing assessed that bin Laden and other terrorist leaders based in Afghanistan had survived US strikes against the country and that their communications networks remained intact.

The documents also reveal that potential aircraft hijacking plans had been discussed as early as 1998. One briefing noted that conspirators had “evaded security checks during a recent trial run at an unidentified New York airport” and that “some members of the Bin Ladin network have received hijack training.”

On September 11, 2001, 19 Al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger planes. Two were flown into the World Trade Centre’s twin towers in New York, while a third crashed into the Pentagon near Washington, DC. The fourth plane crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers and crew members attempted to storm the cockpit.

The attacks brought down the World Trade Centre towers and severely damaged the Pentagon, the headquarters of the US Department of Defense, triggering a major overhaul of American counterterrorism and national security policy.