According to Congress’ Joint Inquiry into the 9/11 attacks, testimony of CIA Counterterrorist Center Director Cofer Black on September 26, 2002, and CIA Director George Tenet on October 17, 2002, author Steve Coll wrote: “Bin Laden moved within Saudi intelligence’s compartmented operations, outside of CIA eyesight. CIA archives contain no record of any direct contact between a CIA officer and bin Laden during the 1980s. CIA officers delivering sworn testimony before Congress in 2002 asserted there were no such contacts, and so did multiple CIA officers and U.S. officials in interviews. The CIA became aware of bin Laden’s work with rebels in Pakistan and Afghanistan later in the 1980s but did not meet with him even then, according to these record searches and interviews. If the CIA did have contact with bin Laden during the 1980s and subsequently covered it up, it has so far done an excellent job.”
– Steve Coll, Ghost Wars, Page 87