Fox News correspondent Laura Ingle reports on those honoring the victims of 9/11 20 years after the attacks.
The FBI released a heavily redacted, 16-page declassified document Saturday night that sheds light on logistical support given to two Saudi hijackers before Sept. 11, 2001.
The document was released exactly 20 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and days after President Biden requested a declassification review from the FBI and other government agencies related to the tragedy.
The
document summarizes an FBI interview conducted in 2015 with a Saudi man
applying for U.S. citizenship who had frequent contact with other Saudi
nationals in the U.S. who provided "significant logistical support"
to the first hijackers arriving in the country.
Some of the 9/11
victims’ families have been hoping for years for documentation to help
them in a potential lawsuit against the Saudi government, alleging it
supported the hijackers. But while the document details the contacts the
hijackers had with Saudi associates in the U.S., it doesn’t provide
proof that senior Saudi government officials were complicit in the plot.
Saudia
Arabia has consistently denied involvement in the attacks and the Saudi
Embassy in Washington said it supports the full declassification of all
records as a way to "end the baseless allegations against the Kingdom
once and for all."
PRESIDENT BIDEN ORDERS REVIEW OF 9/11 DOCUMENT CLASSIFICATION NEARLY 20 YEARS LATER
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis and Usama bin Laden was born in the country.
Jim
Kreindler, a lawyer for the victims' relatives, said in a statement
that "the findings and conclusions in this FBI investigation validate
the arguments we have made in the litigation regarding the Saudi
government’s responsibility for the 9/11 attacks.
An American flag is unfurled at the Pentagon in Washington,
Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021, at sunrise on the morning of the 20th
anniversary of the terrorist attacks. (Associated Press)
"This document, together with the public
evidence gathered to date, provides a blueprint for how (al Qaeda)
operated inside the US with the active, knowing support of the Saudi
government," he said.
Hijackers Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid
al-Mihdhar were helped in finding an apartment in San Diego by Omar
al-Bayoumi, a Saudi national with links to the government, when they
first arrived in the U.S. in 2000. Al-Bayoumi said they met in a "chance
encounter" at a restaurant before he helped them. Bayoumi was known to
the Saudi national whose FBI interview was the basis of Saturday’s
document release.
During the interview, the FBI made multiple
attempts to ascertain if that characterization was accurate or if it had
actually been arranged in advance, according to the document.
Saudi
Arabia is a U.S. ally, especially on counterterrorism issues, but the
relationship has been strained recently – particularly by the 2018
murder of writer Jamal Khashoggi. Earlier this year, the Biden
administration implicated Saudi leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
in Khashoggi’s death. The U.S. didn’t seek any punishment against the
crown prince.
Despite
an investigation of Saudi officials after 9/11, the 9/11 Commission
report found "no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or
senior Saudi officials individually funded" the hijackers. Money could
have been funneled to al Qaeda through Saudi-linked charities, the 2004
report concluded.
Saturday night's document was disclosed hours
after Biden attended Sept. 11 memorial events in New York, Pennsylvania
and northern Virginia. Victims’ relatives had earlier objected to
Biden’s presence at ceremonial events as long as the documents remained
classified.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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