Islamist plot to recruit young British Muslims for terror attack against UK revealed in extraordinary 9/11 files

CIA director John Ratcliffe released the documents to mark the 25th anniversary of 9/11 on Friday.

The attacks killed nearly 3,000 people, among them 67 British citizens.

Last night the agency described the release of 71 redacted briefing notes as its largest ever publication of such material linked to the atrocity, saying it "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".

The documents notably contain multiple references to plans for hijacking aircraft, including the prospect that a group "may fly an explosive-packed airplane into a US city".

A memo from August 28 1998, titled "Bin Ladin Terrorist Network Still a Threat", was produced after US cruise missile strikes on Al-Qaeda bases in Sudan and Afghanistan.

It stated: "Hours before the US missile strikes, Bin Ladin (redacted) was looking at options for further attacks against the US as well as the UK (redacted) Bin Ladin did not indicate precise targets or timing."

A further briefing from late 1998 said: "We have strong indications that he would like to attack the US and allies such as the UK and Israel on their own soil."

That same document made a chilling reference to "planning to hijack aircraft" in connection with "impending anti-US terrorist operations".

A separate file from August 1999 revealed Bin Laden's anger after British police detained two of his London-based operatives, including his senior procurement officer and the head of his UK organisation.

A memo dated October 14, 2000, identified Britain as a recruitment ground for Al-Qaeda fighters.

It stated: "Mujahidin supporters recruit young Muslims in the UK, Pakistan, Turkey, the Arabian Peninsula, and elsewhere for training at camps affiliated with Bin Ladin in Afghanistan."

The final declassified document, dated the day after the 9/11 attacks, served as a situation report naming Bin Laden prominently.

A source suggested the attacks had been in preparation for two years, with the White House and the US Capitol among possible additional targets.

The briefing also noted that the UK and Belgium had banned commercial flights over central London and Brussels.

At a 25th anniversary ceremony at the Pentagon on Friday, former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said she still felt deep pain that "those of us in authority on that day did not see the nature of the danger in time to prevent the attack of 9/11".

She added: "I will always carry deep personal remorse for the pain that you, the families of the fallen, still feel, and for the trauma that our country endured."

On September 11, 2001, 2,977 people died when Al-Qaeda hijackers flew passenger jets into the World Trade Centre's twin towers in New York and the Pentagon near Washington DC.

A fourth hijacked plane, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed in rural Pennsylvania after passengers and crew fought back, preventing it from reaching its suspected target of the Capitol.

The atrocity remains the deadliest terrorist attack in history, with victims from over 90 countries.

It has previously been reported that Bin Laden knew about the July 7 2005 London bombings, in which four suicide attackers killed 52 people and wounded more than 770 on three Tube trains and a bus.

Evidence also indicated he had advance knowledge of the foiled 2006 transatlantic liquid bomb plot.

Bin Laden was finally killed in a devastating US military raid on his compound in Pakistan in 2011.