The thing missing from these briefs is the context. We're not seeing the hundreds or thousands of other daily reports that are mixed in and have to be acted on. It's easy to cherry pick after the fact.
Case in point, just going off of the reports here it would have been hard to predict what happened. They were concerned about Bin Laden starting civil wars, taking embassies, launching a biological attack, cells in Europe, etc. And even their preliminary reports about a possible plane hijacking in the US presumed it would be a simple quid pro quo for prisoner releases.
I'm worried this release is being thinly veiled as an attack on previous administrations. But it should be pointed out that the current administration eschews intelligence entirely and has no qualms about worsening the country's current security posture.
The New York Times summary noted that there was a fear of "alert fatigue" coupled with a lack of confidence about the strength of the signals they were getting.
Yeah, its a bit like a medical test that promises to detect cancer 100% of the time, but actually just says everyone has cancer.
To be useful, information doesn't just have to have a good false negative rate, it also has to have a good false positive rate, and be specific. Otherwise its useless as you can't persue every possible lead.
> We're not seeing the hundreds or thousands of other daily reports that are mixed in and have to be acted on.
There is one PDB per day. One. It is a presentation, not just a sheet of paper. And it's assembled by a team who are producing something for someone who (normally) is the most scheduled person alive save astronauts, who are well aware of that person's fixed resources in terms of time and attention.
Acting like the amount of information presented, especially to someone with extensive executive experience as the governor of Texas, is somehow overwhelming, is beyond disingenuous.
The important context missing here is that Bush was infamous for treating the PDBs like a hassle he didn't want to have to deal with.
The important context missing here is that the terrorists practically put up a neon flashing sign saying "WE WANT TO HIJACK AIRLINERS." They literally told instructors they only cared about specific phases of flight - I think one said "we don't need to know how to land." You know, the hardest part of flying a plane?
The important context missing here is that the WTC attack was used to justify a massive amount of domestic spying.
The last important context missing is that the current president has a very similar attitude toward almost any form of briefing, and entered us into a war largely because he didn't understand nuclear weapons treaties and did not listen to anyone who told him that a weapons treaty having an end date is normal - so the treaty can be revised and renegotiated to meet changes in both countries and the rest of the world. You-know-who thought it was a weakness and the US was getting screwed.
Because a number of the people associated with this are still alive on all sides.
1998-2001 was only 25-28 years ago, so a lot of sources are still alive or active sources as we speak, and in a number of cases now decisionmakers in theirs early-mid 60s.
It's the same way how a KGB liaison officer in 1989 Dresden ended up invading Ukraine 25 years later.
> Interesting to read but … why bother?
It still has academic value, and plenty of information to be garnered.
The redacted parts are a lot more than names and detailed locations.
I think there should be a law that any info is fully public after like 20 years unless releasing it would put a specific person or named group in danger, like a source's identity but not the things they said. No vague talk about national security that can't be verified unless you have a clearance and is probably subjective anyway.
Yes, that includes nuclear weapon designs, hacking tool source code and every assassination plan ever dreamed up by some megalomaniac CIA officer. The system needs to go.
> the C.I.A.’s standard practice is to release them only after about 40 years, to ensure no sources are compromised and minimize any potential tension with allies.
So this was released much earlier than usual and that might be why it's more aggressively redacted
> I think there should be a law that any info is fully public after like 20 years unless releasing it would put a specific person or named group in danger
They don't even release files about human trafficking rings (epstein). Pretty sure what you are suggesting is impossible.
From the outside, it even looks like Trump attacked Iran because of the epstein files. The war is causing more deaths and terror. And it is causing economic problems worldwide. Pretty sure US government legitimacy is at the lowest point in my lifetime.
> From the outside, it even looks like Trump attacked Iran because of the epstein files.
He attacked Iran because he has warhawks and wannabe crusaders in his core group of advisors who believed that it would actually be a quick war, and that the people who had always cautioned against it were just nervous nellies. It doesn't help that Hegseth actively worked to remove people who would have cautioned against it so the yes-men "leaders" left behind were more willing to go along with the false confidence that a short few strikes would be enough.
Only if you ignore the 40+ years Iran has been funding jihadists and terrorist paramilitary groups. Including founding Hezbollah in 1982, the group who pioneered the VBIED car bomb tactic who along with Palestinian groups made plane and bus hijacking part of their brand, both of which Osama himself said heavily influenced Al-Qaeda.
Iran also directly funded Shia terrorist groups in Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. Al-Qaeda/ISIS were just the local Sunni variety, but with less state-backing and more decentralized.
Reminder that Trump famously doesn't take Daily Briefs (first term and now) and for a year with Gabbard, she was omitting huge swarths of info from what he did get.
The CIA has considered Fox News style reports as a form of the daily brief that Trump might be able to understand.[1]
Trump does get regular briefs several times a day, by Natalie Harp. Her job is to find flattering press reports, print them out for Trump, and hand them to him.[2] She has a backpack with a battery-powered printer for this when away from the White House.
TBH the president should primarily be relying on trusted, competent advisors that they’ve surrounded themselves with. They can’t possibly be experts in enough areas to make unilateral decisions.
Case in point, just going off of the reports here it would have been hard to predict what happened. They were concerned about Bin Laden starting civil wars, taking embassies, launching a biological attack, cells in Europe, etc. And even their preliminary reports about a possible plane hijacking in the US presumed it would be a simple quid pro quo for prisoner releases.
I'm worried this release is being thinly veiled as an attack on previous administrations. But it should be pointed out that the current administration eschews intelligence entirely and has no qualms about worsening the country's current security posture.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/11/us/politics/cia-sept-11-i... (gift article)
To be useful, information doesn't just have to have a good false negative rate, it also has to have a good false positive rate, and be specific. Otherwise its useless as you can't persue every possible lead.
There is one PDB per day. One. It is a presentation, not just a sheet of paper. And it's assembled by a team who are producing something for someone who (normally) is the most scheduled person alive save astronauts, who are well aware of that person's fixed resources in terms of time and attention.
Acting like the amount of information presented, especially to someone with extensive executive experience as the governor of Texas, is somehow overwhelming, is beyond disingenuous.
The important context missing here is that Bush was infamous for treating the PDBs like a hassle he didn't want to have to deal with.
The important context missing here is that the terrorists practically put up a neon flashing sign saying "WE WANT TO HIJACK AIRLINERS." They literally told instructors they only cared about specific phases of flight - I think one said "we don't need to know how to land." You know, the hardest part of flying a plane?
The important context missing here is that the WTC attack was used to justify a massive amount of domestic spying.
The last important context missing is that the current president has a very similar attitude toward almost any form of briefing, and entered us into a war largely because he didn't understand nuclear weapons treaties and did not listen to anyone who told him that a weapons treaty having an end date is normal - so the treaty can be revised and renegotiated to meet changes in both countries and the rest of the world. You-know-who thought it was a weakness and the US was getting screwed.
Interesting to read but … why bother?
Because a number of the people associated with this are still alive on all sides.
1998-2001 was only 25-28 years ago, so a lot of sources are still alive or active sources as we speak, and in a number of cases now decisionmakers in theirs early-mid 60s.
It's the same way how a KGB liaison officer in 1989 Dresden ended up invading Ukraine 25 years later.
> Interesting to read but … why bother?
It still has academic value, and plenty of information to be garnered.
I think there should be a law that any info is fully public after like 20 years unless releasing it would put a specific person or named group in danger, like a source's identity but not the things they said. No vague talk about national security that can't be verified unless you have a clearance and is probably subjective anyway.
Yes, that includes nuclear weapon designs, hacking tool source code and every assassination plan ever dreamed up by some megalomaniac CIA officer. The system needs to go.
> the C.I.A.’s standard practice is to release them only after about 40 years, to ensure no sources are compromised and minimize any potential tension with allies.
So this was released much earlier than usual and that might be why it's more aggressively redacted
They don't even release files about human trafficking rings (epstein). Pretty sure what you are suggesting is impossible.
From the outside, it even looks like Trump attacked Iran because of the epstein files. The war is causing more deaths and terror. And it is causing economic problems worldwide. Pretty sure US government legitimacy is at the lowest point in my lifetime.
He attacked Iran because he has warhawks and wannabe crusaders in his core group of advisors who believed that it would actually be a quick war, and that the people who had always cautioned against it were just nervous nellies. It doesn't help that Hegseth actively worked to remove people who would have cautioned against it so the yes-men "leaders" left behind were more willing to go along with the false confidence that a short few strikes would be enough.
Almost like there was no reason to include them in the 'Axis of Evil' at a time when the US was providing cover for them in the fight against Taliban.
Iran also directly funded Shia terrorist groups in Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc. Al-Qaeda/ISIS were just the local Sunni variety, but with less state-backing and more decentralized.
By your logic, shouldn't we be enemies with Saudi Arabia and Israel, who have incubated and funded terrorists for much longer than Iran?
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/09/trump-intelligence-...
https://www.npr.org/2016/12/13/505348507/what-exactly-is-the...
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/tulsi-gabbard-reveals-li...
Trump does get regular briefs several times a day, by Natalie Harp. Her job is to find flattering press reports, print them out for Trump, and hand them to him.[2] She has a backpack with a battery-powered printer for this when away from the White House.
[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/gabbard-c...
[2] archive.is/CFCQT
Which is probably why Biden didn’t attack Iran.
also Roy Cohn taught him reality doesn't matter, just make up any lie and repeat it to the very end until that's all people will respond to
now he's surrounded by people that only tell him what he wants to hear like his "human printer" with $45,000 "xmas gifts"
imagine if there was an actual attack now
he'd invade Canada, seriously, wouldn't matter who did it, he'd make up a reason and repeat it constantly until it's the only talking point
notice how we're not talking about the Epstein Files anymore?
SOB changed the topic enough times to make it slide out of the news