2 minutes agoFBI makes public a document on September 11, 2001
Periskopi(5 years ago)
(5 years ago)The FBI released a newly declassified document Saturday concerning logistical support given to two of Saudi kidnappers on the eve of the 11 September 2001. The document details contacts the kidnappers had with Saudi collaborators in the United States, but does not provide evidence that senior Saudi government officials were collaborators [...]
Published on the 20th anniversary of the attacks, the investigative document is the first to become public after President Joe Biden ordered a review of materials that have been kept secret for years. The 16-page document is a summary of an FBI interview made in 2015 with a person who had frequent contacts with Saudi citizens in the United States who supported the first kidnappers to arrive at the site before the attacks.
Last week, Mr. Biden ordered the Department of Justice and other agencies to review the declassification and publish the documents they could in the next six months. He was put under pressure from the families of the victims, who have long sought classified records while seeking a trial in New York, claiming Saudi government officials backed the kidnappers.
The widely edited document became public Saturday evening, hours after President Biden attended the September 11th memorial ceremonies in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
Some of the victims' families had previously opposed Mr. Biden's presence in ceremonial events as long as the documents remained classified.
The Saudi government has long denied any involvement in the attacks. The Saudi Embassy in Washington has said it supports the complete declaration of all documents as a way to end the unbased “acles against the Kingdom once and for all”. The embassy said any claim that Saudi Arabia was participating was “categorically false”.
Summary of the documents is being published at a politically sensitive time for the US and Saudi Arabia, two countries that have established a strategic alliance, though difficult -- especially on anti-terrorism issues.
President Biden's administration in February published a completion of the discovery that was emphatic to the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the murder of US journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 but was criticised by the Democrats after failing to report directly to the crown prince himself.
Family victims welcomed issuing the document as an important step in their attempt to link the attacks with Saudi Arabia.
