By Brad Friedman on 4/10/2004, 4:31pm PT  

The Presidential Daily Briefing from August 6, 2001, entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S." was declassified and released by the Whitehouse about 9 minutes ago.

The PDB was described this week by Condi Rice as nothing more than an "historical document" presented to the President during a summer when "chatter" had reached an all time high. ("Unbelievable news coming in weeks," "Big event ... there will be a very, very, very, very big uproar," "There will be attacks in the near future.")

The final two paragraphs of the just released "historical" PDB include the following:

FBI information...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.

CIA and the FBI are investigating a call...in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives. [emphasis added]

The next day after receiving this briefing the President left for a 30 day vacation in Crawford, TX.

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