THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06702834
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 11
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: September 21, 2017
• Case Number: F-2017-00327
• Publication Date: August 6, 2001

Approved for Release: 2017/09/15 C06702834
Contents
Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US
For the President Only TO ET
6 August 2001
Approved for Release: 2017/09/15 C06702834
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For the President Only TO ET
6 August 2001
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Bin Ladin Determined To Strike in US
Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladin
since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Ladin '
implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would
follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bring
the fighting to America."
� After US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Ladin
told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to
a service.
� An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an iservice
at the same time that Bin Ladin was planning to exploit the operative's
access to the US to mount a terrorist strike.
The millennium plotting in Canada In 1999 may have been part of
Bin Ladin's first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the�
US. Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the
idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that Bin
Ladin lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the
operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his
own US attack.
� Ressam says Bin Ladin was aware of the Los Angeles operation.
Although Bin Ladin has not succeeded, his attacks against the US
Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares
operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Ladin
associates surveilled our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as early
as 1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the bombings were
arrested and deported in 1997.
Al-Qa`ida members�including some who are US citizens�have resided
in or traveled to the US for years, and the group apparently maintains a
support structure that could aid attacks. Two al-Qa`ida members found guilty
in the conspiracy to bomb our Embassies in East Africa were US citizens, and a
senior EIJ member lived in California in the mid-1990s.
� A clandestine source said in 1998 that a Bin Ladin cell in New York
was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.
We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational
threat reporting, such as that from a service in
1998 saying that Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the
release of "Blind Shaykh" lImar 'Abd al-Rahman and other US-held
extremists.
continued...
For the President Only TO ET
� 6 August 2001
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Nevertheless, 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.
� The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations
throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin�related. CIA and the
FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying
that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks
with explosives.
For the President Only fiC1L,ET
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For the President Only
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For the President Only IYPSCRL
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For the President Only �TDP-SEGREZ�_
6 August 2001
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