FBI makes public long-secret memo on 9/11 investigation

President Biden recently ordered the Justice Department to review the attacks by Saturday’s 20-year anniversary and possibly issue a memo as part of a broader order to make the documents public.

An internal 16-page FBI memo from April 2016 summarized the state of the then-active investigation into whether multiple people linked to the Saudi government helped the kidnappers in California find housing, make travel arrangements, and other matters as part of the conspiracy. Of. Saudi Arabia has denied any involvement or involvement.

In the memo, FBI agents described their analysis of phone records that appear to link some of the subjects of the investigation to an associate of Osama bin Laden or other potential detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

The memo also showed a flurry of phone contacts surrounding the arrival of the two hijackers in Los Angeles. It also describes how some witnesses contradicted the claims of certain subjects of the investigation, who denied information about the conspiracy. Some names and other information were modified in the memo.

Fahad al-Thumairi, one of the men under investigation at the time, told the FBI that he had an encounter with two hijackers at a Los Angeles restaurant, recognized their tone and started a conversation. According to the memo, another witness told the FBI that Mr. al-Thumairi had come to the restaurant, placed himself near the front window and approached the two hijackers before they could hear him speak.

Another Saudi man under investigation at the time, Omar al-Bayoumi, had checked into a Culver City, Calif., hotel a month before the hijackers’ arrival, with a man whose phone numbers linked to a bin Laden lieutenant’s spiritual advisor. Were. , the memorandum said. According to previously released documents and memos, both men had links with the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles. The position and whereabouts of the men could not be ascertained and they could not be contacted for comment.

The families of the 9/11 victims have long sought memos and other documents from the FBI as part of their lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, alleging that the Saudi government had been involved in the attacks. helped in coordination.

In a statement, 9/11 Families United, a group representing the families of the victims, said the release of the memo “casts no doubt about Saudi involvement in the attacks.”

A representative for the Saudi embassy in Washington could not be immediately reached for comment.

Lawyers for the victims’ families have argued that several Saudi men assisted the two hijackers in a “highly coordinated, state-run and covert operation” and filed affidavits in a court case written by former FBI officials. . Recent years supported that contention.

The agency had earlier refused to disclose the documents citing national security interests.

The Trump administration declined to disclose the documents on the same grounds. But the Justice Department revealed in August that the FBI had recently closed that investigation and would consider releasing some of the documents.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed when a hijacked airliner and passengers fought back at the World Trade Center in New York, Pentagon, crashed by terrorists in a Pennsylvania field. Most of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.

Earlier this month Mr Biden ordered the Justice Department to consider making public several materials contained in the FBI’s case files. He ordered Attorney General Merrick Garland to complete the declassification review of the April 2016 FBI memo by September 11. He gave Mr. Garland extra time to review the other documents.

A federal judge on Friday approved a request by federal prosecutors to allow the Justice Department to publicly disclose some of the grand-jury materials discussed in an April 2016 memo.

The US 9/11 Commission said in its 2004 report that it had found no evidence that Mr al-Thumairi, one of the people allegedly linked to the Saudi government, assisted the hijackers. That report also said the commission saw “no credible evidence” that Mr al-Bayoumi “believed in violent extremism or intentionally aided extremist groups.” Most of the FBI investigations into this case took place after the report was completed.

In 2015, the commission revisited the issue and assessed recent evidence regarding the two men. It said it did not find that the new information changed the original findings, but noted that there was “ongoing internal debate” within the FBI about the potential significance of some of the evidence. At the time, the commission encouraged the FBI leadership to continue. investigation.

This story has been published without modification to the text from a wire agency feed