Osama bin Laden wanted to attack India years before 9/11, CIA file reveals

Terrorist leader Osama bin Laden intended to attack India and several other countries years ago, a newly declassified CIA intelligence brief has revealed.

Bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network identified India and Pakistan as possible targets for terrorist strikes before the September 11, 2001 attacks in America, per the top secret document prepared for US president Bill Clinton in 1998.

The revelation is part of a major CIA release which came on the 25th anniversary of 9/11. On September 11, the CIA made 71 intelligence reports public. It was the largest release of 9/11-related records.

One brief, titled “Bin Ladin Terrorist Network Still a Threat” and dated August 28, 1998, said bin Laden intended to attack several countries, including India and Pakistan.

It said he planned attacks in “Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula—especially Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen—India, Pakistan, Uganda, and possibly Nigeria.” The brief also said US officials had helped arrest bin Laden operatives preparing attacks in Tirana, Albania, and possibly Baku, Azerbaijan.

What the 1998 CIA assessment means

The document does not detail any specific attack plan for India. It shows that US intelligence assessed India and Pakistan as countries where bin Laden’s network intended to carry out attacks, more than three years before 9/11.

The warning came weeks after the August 7, 1998, US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, which killed 224 people and brought bin Laden and al-Qaeda firmly into the focus of US counterterrorism officials.

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India would face a major terror attack three years later. On December 13, 2001, terrorists from Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed stormed the Parliament complex in New Delhi.

Nine people, including security personnel and a gardener, were killed in the attack; all five attackers were also killed.

The Parliament attack came three months after the September 11 attacks in the US.

Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan

Pakistan later became deeply intertwined with the US hunt for bin Laden and the al-Qaeda network. The CIA’s 9/11 records show that US intelligence continued to monitor bin Laden’s activities and his relationship with the Taliban. A later CIA assessment in June 2000 was specifically titled “Pakistan pressing Bin Ladin network.”

Bin Laden ultimately spent his final years hiding in Pakistan. In 2010, intelligence linked one of his couriers to a compound in Abbottabad, near Islamabad.

US forces killed bin Laden there in a raid on May 2, 2011.

Warnings about 9/11 came later

The CIA records include a July 1998 brief on possible US attacks, a December 1998 warning about aircraft hijackings, and the August 6, 2001 brief titled “Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US.”

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On September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four US passenger planes. American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center’s North Tower, followed by United Airlines Flight 175 hitting the South Tower. Both towers later collapsed.

American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. Passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 fought back against the hijackers before the plane crashed in Pennsylvania.

A total of 2,977 people, excluding the 19 hijackers, were killed.

What was Osama bin Laden’s role?

Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda’s founder and leader, directed the organisation behind the attacks. He was not one of the hijackers. The plot developed over several years.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, whom the 9/11 Commission called the attack’s “principal architect”, worked with bin Laden and other al-Qaeda leaders on the plan.