The Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB) recently announced that it will hold its next public meeting on October 29, 2025, with an agenda focused on the substantial body of records relating to the September 11th terrorist attacks that are fast approaching their 25-year mandatory declassification deadline.
For nearly two decades, the PIDB has remained steadfast in urging the review and declassification of 9/11-related records, advocating for the release of what the Board, and others, have identified as historically significant material of high public interest:
- In 2008, the PIDB published the report, “Improving Declassification,” which recommended declassifying historically significant records of the 9/11 Commission, in advance of their 25-year mandatory declassification review point.
- In 2014, the PIDB reinforced this recommendation in its report, “Setting Priorities: An Essential Step in Transforming Declassification,” which again emphasized prioritizing 9/11 records for declassification.
- In 2021, the PIDB wrote a letter to the President requesting the declassification of key 9/11 Commission records, including recommendations to release a summary of the President’s daily intelligence briefings, as well as interviews with former presidents, vice presidents, and other national security leaders. The letter was informed by a 2021 PIDB public meeting, at which the Board hosted and heard directly from 9/11 Commission members on the importance of transparency for these records.
- Consistent with the PIDB’s recommendations, in September 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order 14040, which directed that information collected and generated in the U.S. Government’s investigation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks should now be disclosed, except when the strongest possible reasons counsel otherwise.
- In 2022, consistent with the PIDB’s recommendations, the previously classified interviews with President Bush and Vice President Cheney were released, in part, to the public.
- In 2023, the PIDB again convened a public meeting at the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas, where the impact of systematic overclassification was discussed as a factor in the delay in the release of the remaining 9/11 Commission records.
- The PIDB continues to pursue the release of 9/11 historically significant records through Mandatory Declassification Review (MDR). An “MDR” request submitted by the PIDB to the George W. Bush Presidential Library in 2021 for the release of the summary of the President’s daily intelligence briefing has since been appealed by the Board to the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel (ISCAP), which serves as the “court of last resort” for classification review. As of today, this appeal remains pending and unresolved.
The PIDB has long upheld the importance of reviewing, declassifying and publicly releasing the 9/11 Commission records, and the Board continues to advocate the declassification of the remaining 9/11 Commission interviews and the summary of the President’s daily intelligence briefing.
While the review process has grown stagnant, public interest in these records has only increased – and will continue to do so as we reach the 25th anniversary of these extraordinarily consequential events. The time is right to move this work forward, and the Board invites the public to join us in discussion on October 29, 2025, in support of this effort.
The PIDB public meeting will be held in Washington, DC at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Both in-person and virtual public participation will be accommodated, with details on each to follow.
About the PIDB: Established by Congress, the PIDB is an independent advisory board that advises the President and executive branch on the identification, review, and release of historically significant records, with a mission to advance transparency while safeguarding national security. The PIDB’s work also directly informs executive and legislative branch efforts to modernize the national security classification system—a goal that strengthens public access, democratic accountability, and national security.