The FBI released a newly released 16-page document late Saturday regarding the logistical support provided by two of the Saudi hijackers in the lead-up to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The document describes contacts the kidnappers had with Saudi partners in the United States, but offers no evidence that the Saudi government was involved in the conspiracy.
The document, dated 20 Biden, has come under pressure in recent weeks from the victims’ families, who have long been searching for the files while pursuing a lawsuit in New York alleging that high-ranking Saudi officials are involved Attacks were involved.
The Saudi government has long denied any involvement. The Saudi embassy in Washington said on Wednesday that it supports the full release of all records to “end the baseless allegations against the kingdom once and for all.” The embassy said any claim that Saudi Arabia was complicit is “categorically wrong”.
Biden last week directed the Department of Justice and other agencies to conduct a review of the clearance of the investigative documents and to release as much as possible over the next six months. The 16 pages were released on Saturday night, hours after Biden attended memorial services in New York, Pennsylvania and Northern Virginia on September 11th. The relatives of the victims had previously spoken out against Biden’s presence at ceremonial events as long as the documents remained secret.
Reading | 20 years 9/11: From terror to the war on terror to the return of terror
The heavily edited recording, released on Saturday, describes a 2015 interview with a person who applied for US citizenship and had repeated contacts with Saudi nationals years earlier that investigators said provided “significant logistical support” to several of the kidnappers. offered.
The documents are released at a politically sensitive time for the US and Saudi Arabia, two nations that have formed a strategic – albeit difficult – alliance, particularly on counter-terrorism issues. The Biden government published an intelligence review in February that implicated Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the 2018 murder of American journalist Jamal Khashoggi, but drew criticism from Democrats for avoiding direct punishment of the Crown Prince himself.
Regarding 9/11, there has been speculation of official involvement since shortly after the attacks, when it was revealed that 15 of the 19 attackers were Saudis. Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader at the time, came from a prominent family in the kingdom.
According to already released documents, the US was investigating some Saudi diplomats and others with Saudi government ties who were known to kidnappers after they arrived in the US.
Still, the 9/11 Commission’s report found “no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually financed the attacks orchestrated by al-Qaida”. But the commission also noted “the likelihood” that Saudi government-sponsored charities were doing.
Particular attention has focused on the first two kidnappers to arrive in the US, Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar. In February 2000, shortly after their arrival in Southern California, they met a Saudi citizen named Omar al-Bayoumi in a halal restaurant, who helped them find and rent an apartment in San Diego, had ties to the Saudi government and had previously dated FBI was investigating.
Regard: Many Taliban ministers on the global terror watch list
एक टिप्पणी भेजें