“Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US”

The item says clandestine, foreign government and media reports showed bin Laden had wanted to attack in the United States since 1997. It quotes bin Laden’s hints that his followers would follow the example of the 1993 World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and “bring the fighting to America,” calls the 1999 millennium plot possibly his first serious attempt at a U.S. strike, and says al Qaeda members, some of them U.S. citizens, had lived in or traveled to the country for years. [1]

Its most cited line: “FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.” It adds that the FBI was conducting about 70 full field investigations it considered bin Laden-related. It also says the CIA could not corroborate some of the more sensational reporting, such as a 1998 report that bin Laden wanted to hijack a U.S. aircraft to free the “Blind Shaykh,” Omar Abdel Rahman. [1]

The Commission says it was the 36th PDB item that year about bin Laden or al Qaeda, and the first about an attack inside the United States. [2]

Bush told the Commission the report was “historical in nature,” that it told him al Qaeda was dangerous, which he already knew, and that it was heartening that 70 investigations were under way. He said Rice told him the surveillance of a federal building in New York had been looked into and there was no actionable intelligence. He did not recall discussing it with the Attorney General. [1]

Tenet saw the President in Crawford on 17 August and at briefings from 31 August to 10 September, but did not recall discussing the domestic threat with him in that period. The Commission’s overall finding was that “the domestic agencies never mobilized in response to the threat. They did not have direction, and did not have a plan to institute.” [1]

In September 2026 the CIA released 71 more PDB items on bin Laden and al Qaeda going back to 1998, filling in how often the threat reached the President’s desk under two administrations. [2]