FBI covered up Saudi 9/11 links: report
The United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigations is facing claims it covered up Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the September 11 terror attacks by keeping key details from Congress.
The accusation comes amid claims a well-connected Saudi family fled Florida in the weeks leading up to the attack, raising suspicions they were aware of the impending disaster.
The New York Post reports the FBI investigated claims that the family of a senior advisor to the Saudi royal family abandoned the home but that details of the investigation were kept from the Congressional committee tasked with examining the attacks.
The Sarasota home was owned by Esam Ghazzawi, an adviser to the nephew of the then Saudi King Fahd. Occupied by Ghazzawi’s daughter and son-in-law, the house was abandoned two weeks before two airliners slammed into New York’s World Trade Centre, killing more than 3,000 people.
Their escape came suddenly with expensive furniture, new cars and a refrigerator full of food left as the family returned to Saudi Arabia. Their abrupt departure led suspicious neighbours to alert the FBI which spent years investigating their claims.
The bureau reportedly uncovered connections to sympathisers of Osama bin Laden, as well as the shocking suggestion that one family member attended the same flight school as one 9/11 hijackers.
While the FBI acknowledges the investigation took place, it dismissed the final result.
“The FBI told the Review Commission that the communication was ‘poorly written’ and wholly unsubstantiated,” a 128 page Congressional report said.
“When questioned later by others in the FBI, the special agent who wrote [it] was unable to provide any basis for the contents of the document or explain why he wrote it as he did.”
However, the New York Post reported that that explanation did not sit well with former Democratic Congressman Bob Graham, who has long maintained his view the FBI covered up links to the Saudi government.
Mr Graham is now part of a push to convince President Barrack Obama to declassify 28 pages of a key report, which were redacted in full by former president George W Bush.
“The 28 pages primarily relate to who financed 9/11, and they point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier,” he said.
Mr Graham said he was referring to Saudi government involvement, not that of wealthy individuals within the country.
Morning news break – April 13
