FBI releases new declassified dossier on 9/11 attacks

The FBI released a newly declassified document on Saturday evening regarding logistical support to two of the Saudi hijackers in the run-up to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The document details the contacts the hijackers had with Saudi associates in the United States, but does not provide evidence that senior Saudi government officials were complicit in the plot.

Released on 20th anniversary of the attacks, the document is the first investigative record to come out since President Joe Biden ordered a declassification review of documents that for years have remained out of public view. The 16-page document is a summary of a 2015 FBI interview with a man who had frequent contact with Saudi nationals in the United States who supported the first hijackers to arrive in the country before the attacks .

Biden last week ordered the Justice Department and other agencies to conduct a declassification review and release the documents they can over the next six months. He had come under pressure from the families of the victims, who had long sought the cases as they pursued a trial in New York City alleging that Saudi government officials backed the hijackers.

The heavily redacted document was leaked on Saturday night, hours after Biden attended the 9/11 commemorative events in New York City, Pennsylvania and northern Virginia. Relatives of the victims had previously objected to Biden’s presence at ceremonial events as long as the documents remained confidential.

The Saudi government has long denied any involvement in the attacks. The Saudi Embassy in Washington has supported the complete declassification of all records as a way to “end once and for all the baseless allegations against the Kingdom.” The embassy said any claim that Saudi Arabia was complicit was “categorically false”.

The wealth of documents comes at a politically sensitive time for the United States and Saudi Arabia, two countries that have forged a strategic – albeit difficult – alliance, particularly on counterterrorism issues. The Biden administration in February published an intelligence assessment implicating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the 2018 murder of US journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but drew criticism from Democrats for avoiding direct punishment from the crown prince himself.

Relatives of the victims hailed the release of the document as an important step in their efforts to link the attacks to Saudi Arabia. Brett Eagleson, whose father, Bruce, was killed in the World Trade Center attack, said the release of the FBI material “is accelerating our search for truth and justice.”

Jim Kreindler, an attorney for relatives of the victims, said in a statement that “the findings and conclusions of this FBI investigation validate the arguments we have made in the litigation regarding the responsibility of the Saudi government in the 9/11 attacks.

“This document, along with the public evidence gathered to date, provides a diagram of how (al-Qaida) operated inside the United States with the active and conscious support of the Saudi government,” he said. -he declares.

This includes, he added, Saudi officials exchanging phone calls with each other and Al-Qaida operatives, then having “accidental encounters” with the hijackers while providing them with assistance in their lives. ” set up and find flight schools.

Regarding 9/11, there was speculation about an official involvement shortly after the attacks, when it was revealed that 15 of the 19 attackers were Saudis. Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida at the time, came from a prominent family in the kingdom.

The United States has investigated some Saudi diplomats and others with Saudi government ties who knew of the hijackers after they arrived in the United States, according to documents that have already been declassified.

Yet the Commission’s report on September 11 in 2004 found “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded” the attacks orchestrated by al-Qaida, although it noted that charities linked to Saudi Arabia could have diverted money to the group. .

Particular review focused on the first two hijackers to arrive in the United States, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar, and the support they received.

In February 2000, shortly after arriving in Southern California, they met at a halal restaurant a Saudi national named Omar al-Bayoumi who helped them find and rent an apartment in San Diego, had ties to the Saudi government and had previously attracted the attention of the FBI. .

Bayoumi described his meeting at the restaurant with Hazmi and Mihdhar as a “chance encounter,” and the FBI, during his interview, repeatedly attempted to determine whether this characterization was accurate or whether it had been arranged in advance. according to the document.

The 2015 interview that forms the basis of the document concerned a man who applied for US citizenship and who, years earlier, had had repeated contact with Saudi nationals who investigators said provided “significant logistical support.” to several of the hijackers. Among his contacts was Bayoumi, according to the document.

The man’s identity is redacted throughout the document, but he is described as having worked at the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles.

The document also refers to Fahad al-Thumairy, at the time a diplomat accredited to the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles who, according to investigators, led an extremist faction in his mosque. The document says the communications analysis identified a seven-minute phone call in 1999 from Thumairy’s phone to the Saudi family of two brothers who became future detainees at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.

Bayoumi and Thumairy both left the United States weeks before the attacks.