A long-classified document, detailing suspected connections between Saudi Arabia and the hijackers who carried out the September 2001 attacks, was released Friday by the House Intelligence Committee after being redacted by USA intelligence.
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“While in the United States, some of the September 11 hijackers were in contact with, and received support or assistance from, individuals who may be connected to the Saudi government”, according to the section releasedFriday by the House Intelligence Committee with some portions blacked out.
The report’s authors say their findings doesn’t prove anything. Lawmakers and relatives of victims of the attacks, who believe that Saudi links to the attackers were not thoroughly investigated, campaigned for years to get the pages released. A CBS “60 Minutes” report in April suggested a Saudi diplomat “known to hold extremist views” may have helped the hijackers after they traveled to the USA to prepare for the attacks.
Saudi Ambassador to the United States Abdullah Al-Saud put out a statement after the document’s release Friday welcoming its publication, though he didn’t address the details it contains.
The report indicates links between Saudi Arabian government and those behind 9/11 but such links have been dismissed as preliminary allegations which could not be corroborated by subsequent investigations.
“We need to put an end to conspiracy theories and idle speculation that do nothing to shed light on the 9/11 attacks”, Burr and Feinstein said in a joint statement released by Feinstein’s office.
The pages were part of a larger 2002 investigation of the terrorist attacks by the House and Senate intelligence committees.
Abdullah al-Saud, the Saudi ambassador to the United States, said the kingdom has long called for the release of the document.
And the declassified pages blast USA intelligence agencies for failing to collaborate on investigations of Saudi nationals, or to devote significant time to those investigations, saying the Federal Bureau of Investigation did not focus on investigations on Saudi nationals because of Saudi Arabia’s status as an “ally” and that the FBI and Central Intelligence Agency only began working together to address the Saudi issue after commissioners began their inquiry.
Omar al-Bayoumi, a Saudi national who helped two of the hijackers in California, was suspected of being a Saudi intelligence officer.
The report also mentions that numbers found in the phonebook of Abu Zubaydah, a detainee now held in Guantánamo, could be traced to a company in Denver, Colorado, connected to former Saudi ambassador to the U.S. Prince Bandar bin Sultan.
Osama Bassnan, who lived across the street from two of the hijackers in California.
“We’ve been saying since 2003 that the pages should be released”, said Nail Al-Jubeir, director of communications for the Saudi Embassy, ahead of Friday’s developments. Al-Bayoumi was in close contact with hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Midhar, providing them financial assistance during their time in the United States and even helping them find an apartment. In a phone book found on al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah, who was captured in Pakistan in 2002. Al-Hussayen stayed at the same hotel as one of the hijackers in the days before the attack.
President Obama ordered the pages be declassified two years ago in response to pressure from families impacted by the attacks and other groups.
Kean and Hamilton said the 28 pages were based nearly entirely on raw, unvetted material that came to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They said the material was then written up in FBI files as possible leads for further investigation.
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Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, and vice chairman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., urged the public to read the results of other investigations by the CIA and FBI that “debunk” numerous allegations, and put conspiracy theories to rest.
