Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released the first of several documents related to its investigation of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and suspected Saudi government involvement.
Gatekeepers News reports that 15 out of the 19 al Qaeda terrorists who hijacked four planes on September 11, 2001, were Saudi nationals and the document which was released on Saturday, follows an executive order by President Joe Biden. Over 1,600 people affected by the attacks had sent Biden a letter asking him to refrain from going to Ground Zero in New York City to mark the 20th anniversary unless he released the information.
The newly declassified document, which is from 2016, gives details of the FBI’s work to review the alleged logistical assistance that a Saudi consular official and a suspected Saudi intelligence agent in Los Angeles gave to at least two of the men who hijacked planes on September 11, 2001.
The document, released on the 20th anniversary of the deadly attacks, still contains significant redactions.
It reveals various connections and witness statements that aroused FBI suspicion of Omar al-Bayoumi, who was purportedly a Saudi student in Los Angeles but whom the FBI suspected to be a Saudi intelligence agent. The FBI document describes him as deeply involved in providing “travel assistance, lodging and financing” to help the two hijackers.
A group of family members and survivors of the 9/11 attacks said the report released Saturday night “puts to bed any doubts about Saudi complicity in the attacks.”
“Even with the unfortunate number of redactions, the report contains a host of bombshell new revelations, implicating numerous Saudi government officials, in a coordinated effort to mobilize an essential support network for the first arriving 9/11 hijackers, Nawaf al Hazmi and Khalid al Mihdhar,” 9/11 Families United said in a statement.
“The range of contacts at critical moments among these Saudi government officials, al-Qaeda and the hijackers is stunning.”
Gatekeepers News reports that the Saudi government has dismissed any involvement in the attacks.
On Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan reaffirmed that his country welcomes the decision by the US to release classified documents relating to its investigation of the attacks, saying the documents “would completely show that there was no (Saudi) involvement” in the attacks.
He said Saudi Arabia has pushed for the release of these documents for over a decade and is sure that the documents “would completely show that there was no (Saudi) involvement … anyway.”
