‘Strong indications’ Osama bin Laden was plotting terror attack on Britain before 9/11, bombshell new CIA docs reveal

TERROR boss Osama bin Laden wanted to attack Britain on its own soil years before 9/11, new bombshell CIA memos reveal. US spies claimed to have had “strong indications” that the UK was on an Al-Qaeda hit list with the reports unearthed in top secret documents released by the CIA to mark the 25th anniversary of the terror attacks. The huge trove of documents released by the spy agency included one from August 28, 1998, which said Bin Laden was looking to target the UK. It was among 69 newly declassified briefing notes released – marking the largest release of information related to 9/11 ever. The UK had been directly mentioned in a document titled “Bin Ladin Terrorist Network Still a Threat”. The CIA appeared to purposely misspell the terror boss’ name throughout the docs. Read more in world news Compiled after American cruise missile strikes on Al-Qaeda bases in Sudan, the memo said Bin Laden was seeking to target the UK. The memo said: “Hours before the US missile strikes, Bin Laden was looking at options for further attacks against the US as well as the UK.” “Bin Ladin did not indicate precise targets or timing.” The memo also warned that a US Embassy in a redacted country was “a possible target” and said a man had been authorized by bin Laden to “explore attacks in the US.” Most read in The Sun Another memo written at the end of that year, was marked “Significant Near-Term Threat of Bin Ladin Attacks”. It warned: “We have strong indications that he would like to attack the US and allies such as the UK and Israel on their own soil. “If Bin Ladin judges these venues are too well defended, however, he will target US and allied interests in other areas of the world accessible to his network.” A file from August 1999 highlighted Bin Laden’s anger that two of his London-based henchmen had been detained by British police. The memo revealed: “His organisation’s capabilities have suffered from the arrest of key operatives. “Bin Ladin in interviews last year expressed anger over the arrests of his senior procurement officer and the chief of his organisation in the UK.” The docs warn of Bin Laden’s plotting “despite sparse, vague, and imperfect information”. They included intel about plans by Bin Laden to hijack planes, noting the possibility that a group “may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a US city”. The CIA said the huge document release “aimed to give Americans a glimpse into our most sensitive intelligence from the years before and day after one of our nation’s darkest moments”. It said the 71 partially-redacted briefing notes “trace the story of CIA analysts’ evolving understanding” of Al-Qaeda. Two of the memos had been released before.