CIA files reveal Bin Laden’s network considered India among terror targets before 9/11

Newly declassified US intelligence records have revealed that Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network had considered India and Pakistan among countries where it intended to carry out terrorist attacks, more than three years before the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

The assessment was contained in a top-secret intelligence brief prepared for then US president Bill Clinton on August 28, 1998. The document, titled “Bin Ladin Terrorist Network Still a Threat”, said bin Laden intended to carry out attacks in several countries, including India and Pakistan.

The revelation comes as the Central Intelligence Agency released 71 President’s Daily Brief products on September 11, 2026, to mark the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The CIA described the release as its largest-ever declassification of intelligence products related to the attacks. The collection contains more than 100 pages of previously classified analysis covering the period before, during and immediately after 9/11.

India and Pakistan among countries identified as potential targets

The August 1998 assessment said bin Laden’s network was planning attacks in “Egypt, the Arabian Peninsula, especially Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, India, Pakistan, Uganda, and possibly Nigeria”.

The document did not identify a particular location, institution or operation in India. Instead, it indicated that US intelligence had assessed India as one of the countries where bin Laden’s network intended to conduct attacks.

The brief also referred to US efforts to disrupt al-Qaeda-linked operations outside the United States. American officials had helped arrest bin Laden operatives who were preparing attacks in Tirana, Albania, and possibly Baku, Azerbaijan.

The disclosure provides an insight into the global ambitions of al-Qaeda in the years before 9/11. The CIA’s newly released collection shows that the agency had been tracking bin Laden and warning US officials about his network well before the attacks on American soil.

The warning came after the East Africa embassy bombings

The August 28 assessment was issued only weeks after al-Qaeda carried out the bombings of US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on August 7, 1998.

The two attacks killed 224 people, including 12 Americans, and injured thousands. They brought bin Laden and al-Qaeda into much sharper focus for US counterterrorism officials. The CIA has said the attacks had been planned years in advance.

The agency's response extended beyond the investigation of the bombings. CIA and FBI personnel worked with foreign authorities to arrest suspected members of bin Laden’s network and disrupt other operations. The 9/11 Commission later recorded that CIA officers working with Albanian authorities had raided an al-Qaeda forgery operation and another terrorist cell in Tirana, while arrests were also made in other countries.

The newly released records show that the threat assessment continued to evolve in the months that followed. A September 10, 1998 brief, for example, was titled “Bin Ladin’s Location and Intentions”, while a December 4, 1998 assessment warned that bin Laden was preparing to hijack US aircraft and carry out other attacks.

India faced a major terror attack three years later

India would experience one of its most significant terror attacks before the end of 2001.

On December 13, 2001, terrorists belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed stormed the Parliament complex in New Delhi. Nine people, including security personnel and a gardener, were killed. All five attackers were also killed.

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

The newly declassified 1998 assessment does not establish a direct connection between the warning about India and the Parliament attack. Rather, it shows that India had already been identified by US intelligence as a potential target of bin Laden’s network several years before the attack on Parliament.

Pakistan became central to the hunt for bin Laden

Pakistan also featured prominently in subsequent US intelligence assessments concerning bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

A June 2000 CIA assessment was titled “Pakistan pressing Bin Ladin network”, reflecting continued US efforts to monitor bin Laden’s activities and his relationship with the Taliban.

Bin Laden eventually spent his final years hiding in Pakistan. After the 9/11 attacks, US intelligence began building a picture of the al-Qaeda leader’s network of couriers. Intelligence gathered over the following years eventually linked one of his couriers to a compound in Abbottabad, near Islamabad.

US forces killed bin Laden during a raid on the compound on May 2, 2011, Pakistan time. The CIA has said the operation was the result of years of intelligence collection and analysis.

CIA warnings intensified before September 2001

The newly released material also adds to the record of warnings issued to the Clinton administration in the years before 9/11.

The CIA collection includes a July 1998 brief on possible attacks inside the US, a December 1998 warning about aircraft hijackings and the August 6, 2001 President’s Daily Brief titled “Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US”. The agency's newly released collection also includes a September 1998 assessment warning about bin Laden’s intentions and several other reports on the growing threat.

On September 11, 2001, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four US passenger aircraft.

American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, followed by United Airlines Flight 175 striking the South Tower. Both towers subsequently collapsed.

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

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

Bin Laden directed the al-Qaeda operation

Bin Laden, the founder and leader of al-Qaeda, directed the organisation behind the September 11 attacks. He was not among the 19 hijackers.

The 9/11 plot developed over several years, with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed playing a central role. The 9/11 Commission identified Mohammed as the “principal architect” of the attacks. He worked with bin Laden and other senior al-Qaeda figures in developing the operation.

The CIA has said that, less than six months after the August 1998 embassy bombings, bin Laden gave Mohammed approval to plan the attacks that would ultimately target New York and Washington. The embassy bombings therefore represented an important stage in the evolution of the 9/11 plot.

The latest CIA release does not fundamentally alter what is known about 9/11, but it provides a broader view of how US intelligence tracked bin Laden’s ambitions before the attacks. It also shows that his network was viewed as a global terrorist threat, with countries including India and Pakistan featuring in assessments years before the attacks that changed the course of the US-led war on terror.