Victims Relatives Say FBI Memo Hints At Saudi Involvement In 9/11 Attacks
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – Victims’ relatives say a released declassified document is a significant step in their effort to connect the 9/11 attacks against the United States to Saudi Arabia.
They spoke after a published memo by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation hinted at Saudi involvement in the deadliest recorded act of terrorism in history.
Some 2,977 people died in the attacks involving planes flying into buildings, while all 19 hijackers were killed.
Most deaths occurred in New York, with 2,606 people killed either inside the World Trade Center or on the ground below.
Brett Eagleson, whose father, Bruce, was killed in the World Trade Center attack, said the release of the FBI material over the weekend “accelerates our pursuit of truth and justice.”
The FBI file details a 2015 interview with an official who worked at the Saudi Consulate in Los Angeles. The man admitted that he allowed two hijackers to use his apartment and helped them travel around Los Angeles.
TERROR ‘FACILITATOR’
He was found to be an al-Qaeda terror group ‘facilitator’ by the FBI, and the Saudi Consul General wanted to fire him for distributing extremist Muslim literature.
The man was also a close associate of two other Saudis, Omar al-Bayoumi and Fahad al-Thumairy, who helped the hijackers.
The new FBI file reveals that al-Bayoumi, who has admitted befriending them, worked as a ‘ghost employee’ at a Saudi aviation firm in the U.S.
The memo said Thumairy gave the hijackers assistance, the FBI concluded. “Bayoumi’s assistance to Hamzi and Midha included translation, travel, lodging, and financing,” the memo said.
The Saudi official, who is only referred to as PII and who applied for US citizenship in 2015, is thought to be Mussaed Ahmed al-Jarrah. He worked at the Saudi Consulate in Washington, DC.
Al-Jarrah’s name was accidentally left unredacted in separate court papers penned by an FBI official. However, he has vigorously denied any involvement and insists he did not know any of the hijackers.
SAUDI ATTACKERS
Of the 19 hijackers on board the four doomed 9/11 planes, 15 were Saudi nationals. Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaida at the time, was from a prominent family in the kingdom.
Last Wednesday, Saudi Arabia released a statement maintaining its innocence, saying ‘it is lamentable that such false and malicious claims persist.’
The document came a week after U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order directing the FBI to make the secret files available to the public for the first time.
He had been under significant pressure to share the information with Americans. Last month, 1,800 Americans directly affected by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks said Biden wasn’t welcome at memorial events unless he kept his promise to declassify U.S. files about Saudi involvement in the attacks.
While the heavily redacted FBI memo did not show direct involvement of senior Saudi leaders, it raised questions as to how much they knew. More documents are expected while victims continue suing Saudi Arabia for compensation.
Biden has also criticized Saudi Arabia’s human rights record. He earlier released a U.S. intelligence report implicating the Kingdom’s de-facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, in the 2018 killing of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The prince denies any involvement in the killing.
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