Congress finally released a 28-page secret report Friday that details Saudi Arabia’s connection and support of some of the 9/11 hijackers who committed the largest terror attack in American history when they killed 2,996 people.
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These include reported contacts between Saudis in California, money possibly sent from the Saudi royal family to the hijackers, and even a statement that a Saudi Interior Ministry official stayed at the same Virginia hotel as one hijacker in September 2001.
“We need to put an end to conspiracy theories and idle speculation that do nothing to shed light on the 9/11 attacks.”
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals. Nearly 3,000 people were killed when they deliberately flew planes they had seized into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
In 2004, the 9/11 Commission concluded, “We have found no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded the organization [Al-Qaeda]”.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir leaves a Washington DC news conference following the release of 28 pages of a 9/11 Congressional report.
The released pages show that, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation documents, several numbers found in the phone book of a senior al-Qaida operative captured in Pakistan, Abu Zubaydah in March 2002, could be linked, at least indirectly, to phone numbers in the US. The plane made an emergency landing and the FBI investigated, but did not prosecute. FILE- In this September 11, 2001 file photo from airport surveillance tape released September 19, 2001, two men, identified by authorities as suspected hijackers Mohamed Atta, right, and Abdulaziz Alomari, center, p. Bob Graham, who pushed hard for the last chapter of the inquiry’s report to be released, believes the hijackers had an extensive Saudi support system while they were in the United States.
Abdullah Al-Saud, Saudi Arabai’s ambassador to the United States, said in a statement: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia welcomes the release of the redacted pages from the 2002 Congressional Joint Inquiry”.
The document has been made public at a particularly troubled time in the US’ decades-long relationship with Saudi Arabia.
The 28 pages were released as complaints have re-emerged in recent months from some Americans, including relatives of Sept 11 victims, that Saudi Arabia or organisations and wealthy individuals based there have financed groups linked to terrorism or failed to crack down on militants.
The 9/11 Commission report found him to be an “unlikely candidate for clandestine involvement” with extremists.
USA intelligence believed that Saudi officials may have had multiple contacts with some of the 9/11 hijackers.
Saudi officials have pointed to statements from USA officials supporting their position, including an interview CIA Director John Brennan did with the Saudi-owned Arabic news channel Al Arabiya on June 12 in which he said the 28 pages were part of “a very preliminary review”.
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. “That company reportedly had ties to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida”, which orchestrated the attacks.
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Also in the report: Abu Zubaydah, a 9/11 planner captured in Pakistan in 2002, had the phone number of a USA company hired to manage the Colorado home of the Saudi ambassador. The pages were believed to provide evidence that the Saudi Arabian government supported the hijackers.
