AMERICAN spies had “strong indications” terror boss Osama bin Laden wanted to attack Britain on its own soil years before 9/11, bombshell memos reveal.
Previously top secret documents released by the CIA to mark the 25th anniversary of the terror attacks show the UK was on an Al-Qaeda hitlist.
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The huge trove of documents dropped by the spy agency included one from August 28 1998, which said that Bin Laden was looking to target the UK.
A whopping 69 newly declassified briefing notes made it the largest release of information related to 9/11 ever, the CIA said.
Presidents were warned in the years after the attack of more potential threats, including in a document from August 1998 titled “Bin Ladin Terrorist Network Still a Threat”.
Compiled after American cruise missile strikes on Al-Qaeda bases in Sudan, the memo said the terror boss was seeking to target the UK.
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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.”
Another memo written at the end of that year, was marked “Significant Near-Term Threat of Bin Ladin Attacks”.
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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 drop “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”.
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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.